The duo known as Pierpont & Helgeson are out of the Twin Cities and an extension of the long running funk and soul label, Secret Stash Records. The multi-instrumentalists, composers and producers function as essentially a studio project and offered a slew of drops of ambitiously funky, cinema phonic and ambient musical excursions this past year. Coming out...Read More
This week’s hot new local single “Do You Feel Good,” from trumpeter Adam Meckler’s recent hip-hop meets big band project, Sampled. The album’s ten selections are reworkings of music originally recorded by the Adam Meckler Orchestra. Meckler collaborated with a variety of rappers, producers, vocalists, and instrumentalists to rework his compositions. “Do You Feel Good” is...Read More
Pianist Aaron Parks speaks to Jazz88’s Peter Solomon about his most recent project on the Blue Note label, a quartet session called “By All Means,” featuring bassist Ben Street, saxophonist Ben Solomon, and legendary drummer Billy Hart. Parks also discusses his musical influences, how he dealt with being labelled a jazz prodigy, and talks about...Read More
This week, I had the privilege of interview one of the icons in the contemporary jazz world: Saxophonist/arranger Bob Mintzer. He, along with The YellowJackets are coming to town on Jan 21 at Dakota for one night of highly creative jazz. Every time they circle back to the Twin Cities to perform, they have the...Read More
Vocalist Maud Hixson has released a new album of holiday songs called When Winter Comes. She speaks with Jazz88’s Morning Show host Peter Solomon about the project, and the segment includes samples of several of the tunes from the new album. Hixson goes beyond the standard holiday fare and comes up with some really interesting...Read More
This week’s hot new local single is “Twelve Thirty-Four,” from Johannes Wallmann’s newest release, Not Tired, released on December 5th. While the musicians are from our neighboring state Wisconsin, the record was released on the Twin Cities’ Shifting Paradigm Records, whose roster of artists are no strangers to Jazz88’s airwaves. Here, Nick Moran sets the pace...Read More
Jazz88’s Peter Solomon speaks with trumpeter Dan Odegaard, a North High alumnus and a member of the Execs Big Band since 1965. The Execs are celebrating sixty years with a celebratory dance Friday night, November 21st from 7 – 10 PM at Bloomington Event Center. Odegaard also leads his own large ensemble called the Classic...Read More
Jazz88’s Peter Solomon speaks with singer, composer, and songwriter Yazmin from the band Yazmin and Beat Zero As a teenager in rural Wisconsin, Yazmin fell in love with the sounds of Cuba, and and as an adult she spent a few years studying dance and music there. Her band is a fusion of her original...Read More
