May - 2020

May 28, 2020

BEN COX, Consciousness, and other tricks of the light

In a true sign of this strange and challenging pandemic filled era known as 2020, recorded and livestreamed music has played an important role in helping us collectively mourn the old world, cope with the day to day “new normal” and find emotional and spiritual joy in the midst whenever possible. Most of the recordings that have been released for our enjoyment and enrichment during COVI-19 were conceived and created before the universe shifted – but there’s a thought I’ve bee

Jonathan Widran

May 28, 2020

CATHLENE PINEDA, Rainbow Baby

Listening to Rainbow Baby, Cathlene Pineda’s fascinating and stylistically multi-faceted reflections on the joys, sorrows and challenges of her experiences with motherhood, pregnancy, brutal loss and redemptive love, we can be grateful that the classically trained pianist ultimately came to embrace the freer forms of jazz during her time living in New York and Los Angeles. This freedom allows her to capture the multiple swirls of attendant emotions that accompany her recent l

Jonathan Widran

May 26, 2020

BERNWARD KOCH, Becoming

If your passion for soothing/relaxing yet sonically innovative new age music extends back to the late 80s and early 90s, you’ll better understand why the release of Bernward Koch’s new album Becoming is cause for celebration. Now entering his fourth decade of recording, the German born composer/keyboardist has been there helping ease our personal and collective stresses during all the dark, uncertain times that we have experienced since his debut Flowing and its foundational

LIGHTS IN THE FOREST: A Celebration of Art, Music, Dance and the Human Spirit in the Age of COVID-19

Jonathan Widran

May 25, 2020

LIGHTS IN THE FOREST: A Celebration of Art, Music, Dance and the Human Spirit in the Age of COVID-19

Perhaps the most natural and human thing to do during a once in a century global pandemic is to let fear take over. These past few months have been a strange, scary time for millions of people around the world, and it’s all too easy to let constant flow of horrific news and worst-case scenario projections about COVID-19 paralyze us, crush our spirits and make us feel hopeless. Yet the one thing that the coronavirus cannot stop is human creativity. From Facebook livestream con

Jonathan Widran

May 21, 2020

BOB GLUCK, Early Morning Star

Because Bob Gluck is a rabbi (and writer and educator) as well as being an innovative pianist whose two-decades plus discography traverses traditional jazz, live electronic music and avant-garde innovations, it seems appropriate to dub his deeply spiritual, socially conscious and rhythmically and melodically inventive project Early Morning Star one of the most sonically engaging and awakening temple services you’ll likely ever experience. A masterful collaborator throughout h

Jonathan Widran

May 21, 2020

STRINGS FOR PEACE

To fully appreciate Strings for Peace, an historic East meets West classical music summit between Grammy winning guitarist Sharon Isbin and sarod masters Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan Ali Bangesh and Ayaan Ali Bangesh, the listener must know a bit about the stringed instrument. Used mainly in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent, the modern classical sarod – which, along with the sitar, is one of the culture’s most popular and prominent instruments - is 39 inches l

Jonathan Widran

May 21, 2020

SHARON ISBIN, Affinity

When it comes to awards and critical accolades, the fountain never stops for those praising the brilliance and diversity of classical guitarist Sharon Isbin. Hailed by Boston Magazine as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time” and by the Atlanta Journal as “the Monet of the classical guitar…a master colorist,” the multiple Grammy winner has been chosen Guitar Player magazine’s Best Classical Guitarist award and was named the 2020 Musical America Worldwide Instrumentalist of t

Jonathan Widran

May 21, 2020

LISA ADDEO, "What Cha' Know About That"

It was a different 2020 – and a very different world – when bang, zoom out of the box, the title track from funky Smooth Jazz pianist/vocalist Lisa Addeo's album Listen To This became the first new song of the year to reach #1 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart. Now it’s spring and high time for a grooving new perspective. The new normal is strange but the weather is warmer, the flowers are blooming and, with her buoyant, effervescent new single “What Cha Know About That,” Li

DAVID K. MATHEWS, The Fantasy Vocal Sessions, Vol. 2, Soul, Pop, R&B

Jonathan Widran

May 20, 2020

DAVID K. MATHEWS, The Fantasy Vocal Sessions, Vol. 2, Soul, Pop, R&B

Late Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Etta James once said of David K. Mathews, her keyboardist for 20 years, that “he can play anything” – a compliment borne out by his work over the years with everyone from Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Sheila E. and Boz Scaggs to Santana, whom he’s toured with now for ten years. The multi-talented musician, arranger and producer’s stylistic diversity extends to his ongoing album series The Fantasy Vocal Sessions – so named not only because of

KING ROPES, Go Back Where They Came From

Jonathan Widran

May 16, 2020

KING ROPES, Go Back Where They Came From

Millions of musicians make their living in cover bands, keeping crowds satisfied with the tried, true and familiar night after night. The key to their success is often based on their ability to keep the arrangements and vocals as close to the original as possible. Stay safe, don’t challenge. Limit the set list to big hits only. He who is the least creative wins. In other words, EVERYTHING that King Ropes – led by well-traveled visionary and sonically inventive frontman Dave H

Jonathan Widran

May 16, 2020

EVAN MYALL, Evan Myall

Set adrift on the dreamy, floating bliss of the laid back, trippy atmospheres, old school keyboards, impossibly inviting grooves, alternately fuzzy and jangling guitars and delightfully intimate/soulful and sometimes distorted vocals of Evan Mayall, you might wonder where this incredibly inventive LA based singer-songwriter’s been all your retro music loving life. Under his given name of Evan Myall Reiss, he’s spent the last decade or so playing guitar, penning tunes and tour

Jonathan Widran

May 15, 2020

TOWN MEETING, Make Things Better

Funny/ironic the way the world situation sometimes makes accidental prophets out of brilliant local bands just plugging away, jamming, having a blast – and writing songs that may one day have a meaning beyond what they intended. Case in point, Town Meeting, a phenomenal (and phenomenally popular), raw and sonically expansive/inventive Boston based five piece Americana/roots rock jam band led by the free and loose, fun but emotionally deep and resonant collective vision of the

THE JW VIBE

Music That Sticks To My Soul

BEN COX, Consciousness, and other tricks of the light

CATHLENE PINEDA, Rainbow Baby

BERNWARD KOCH, Becoming

LIGHTS IN THE FOREST: A Celebration of Art, Music, Dance and the Human Spirit in the Age of COVID-19

BOB GLUCK, Early Morning Star

STRINGS FOR PEACE

SHARON ISBIN, Affinity

LISA ADDEO, "What Cha' Know About That"

DAVID K. MATHEWS, The Fantasy Vocal Sessions, Vol. 2, Soul, Pop, R&B

KING ROPES, Go Back Where They Came From

EVAN MYALL, Evan Myall

TOWN MEETING, Make Things Better