Tag Archives: new releases

New Releases

When the World Stops Ending

Dave Carroll 

Dave Carroll, the creator behind “United Breaks Guitars,” the groundbreaking YouTube music video considered by many to be the greatest customer service complaint in history, has released a new song and video that is current and relevant for the times. Written and produced during the current COVID-19 pandemic, this song is meant to reflect our ability to respond to fear and uncertainty with love and compassion.

Carroll, of Local 571 (Halifax, NS), said the inspiration for the song was the pandemic and the fact that for the first time, the entire world has agreed to stop and make the solution to a common crisis our common priority. In its wake, the song asks the questions people everywhere are asking right now: What will life be like when we emerge? Will we have new priorities and shift to what we value most or will it be business as usual? Will we love each other better than ever before?

The conclusion: There is good in the world and, as always, we emerge from challenging times with a choice. 

jim brickman
New Releases

Jim Brickman, 25th Anniversary Greatest Hits

jim brickman

Pianist and songwriter Jim Brickman has released his latest album—a compilation of him singing 15 of his biggest hits from the past 25 years. Songs include “By Heart,” “Love of My Life,” “What We Believe In,” and “Coming Home for Christmas.”

Brickman, of Local 4 (Cleveland, OH), jumped from a career as a jingle writer of famous tunes for advertising to reviving the romantic standard of the popular song. His first album release was 1995’s No Words, and he’s gone on to sell eight million albums worldwide since. He’s garnered two Grammy nominations, gospel music’s Dove Award, two SESAC Songwriter of the Year Awards, and the Canadian Country Music Award.

“I write music to be shared—to soothe, to inspire, to celebrate, to love,” he says. “To me, music is the pure and simple soundtrack to life’s most memorable moments.”

The 25th Anniversary Greatest Hits is available in silver, gold, and platinum packages, which contain various special collectors items.

visionary
New Releases

Daniel Szabo, Visionary: New Music for Jazz Trio & Chamber Ensemble

visionary

The new album by Daniel Szabo of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) was written for a unique instrumentation combining woodwind sextet with string quartet and jazz rhythm section. The style of this new repertoire shows a blend of jazz, classical, folk, and film music idioms.

“The album itself creates a story; it is a journey around different states of mind, flying through several dimensions of time and space,” Szabo says. “[It] combines two different approaches: improvising over simple forms as well as interpreting thoroughly-composed sections, within a consistent paradigm of the given composition.”

Szabo is an LA-based performer-composer, as well as an adjunct associate professor at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. In Visionary, Szabo composed, arranged, and orchestrated all of the pieces and played the piano. The works feature a line-up of 15 musicians, all members of Local 47, and was conducted by Timothy Williams, also of Local 47.

world on the ground
New Releases

Sarah Jarosz, World On The Ground

world on the ground

Three-time Grammy winner Sarah Jarosz, of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), has announced the June 5 release of her first new album in four years.

World On The Ground is a collection of stories both real and imagined exploring the tension and inertia of small-town living. Jarosz, a native of Wimberley, TX (pop. 2,626), explores the desire for escape set against the ease of staying put. The album is populated by sensitive souls, aimless wanderers, and back-porch daydreamers. With the scope of a novel and a sound inspired by classic Texas songwriting, the album paints a portrait that exists outside of time.

World On The Ground takes its title from album highlight “Pay It No Mind,” in which wisdom is passed down through song by a bird looking down at the world: “When the world on the ground is gonna swallow you down, sometimes you’ve got to pay it no mind.” The song’s “little bird stretching her wings” graces the album’s cover, an Erin E. Murray painting gifted to Jarosz from her parents.

shades of blue
New Releases

Duo Tachoir, Shades of Blue

Duo Tachoir

Shades of Blue

shades of blue

Marlène and Jerry Tachoir, the husband/wife team comprising Duo Tachoir, is offering a 10th recording of Marlène’s original music, this time without a drummer and bassist. Their new album, Shades of Blue, features a selection of original, eclectic jazz compositions for piano and vibraphone infused with blues influences; it also includes the classically styled “Reflections for Vibraphone and Piano” in three movements.

Duo playing is quite challenging; you are always on the spot in constant musical conversation. It helps that the Tachoirs are like-minded artists with similar backgrounds and education. Jerry is a world-renowned vibraphone and marimba jazz artist, while Marlène is a world-renowned jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer. Both are members of Local 257 (Nashville, TN).

berlioz
New Releases

Utah Symphony, Berlioz

berlioz

Music Director Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s new all-Berlioz album features a varied selection from Berlioz’s oeuvre, including his best-known work, Symphonie fantastique.

The album also includes Rêverie et caprice for violin and orchestra, recorded with Philippe Quint when he was the orchestra’s Artist-in-Association, and two poetry settings for orchestra and chorus, La mort d’Ophélie and Sara la baigneuse, which were recorded with the Utah Symphony Chorus and University of Utah Chamber Choir.

Utah Symphony musicians are members of Local 104 (Salt Lake City, UT).

Ample’tudes
New Releases, Products

Steve Purcell, Ample’tudes

Ample’tudes

With more than enough guitars to satisfy any fan, Steve Purcell’s debut solo 10-song CD release, Ample’tudes, is a guitar-driven diverse collection of songs with an impressive array of world-class guest musicians.

This multi-genre audio journey paints pictures taking the listener to places from rock concerts, smoky jazz clubs, old western missions, and more. Purcell used a multitude of instruments for the songs, from a PRS through a Marshall, to a Gretsch through a Fender deluxe reverb, to a Martin acoustic with a room mic.

For the album, Purcell, of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), drew from various music influences that he has shared the stage with, such as Paul Stanley (KISS) of Local 802 (New York City), Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA), The Outlaws, Pat Travers, and others.

In the Key of the World
New Releases, Products

Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, In the Key of the World

In the Key of the World

The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s new full-length studio album features music by multiple Canadian composers, including Moshe Denburg of Local 145 (Vancouver, BC), performed by an ensemble of 28 musicians from Local 145 and Local 247 (Victoria, BC) playing instruments from a wide range of musical traditions, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Persian, East Indian, and European.

In the Key of the World exists in several musical genres at once: world, classical, traditional. It’s fusion music on a global scale; music that transcends borders and breaks down barriers, throwing open the doors of contemporary classical music and forging a new path towards a diverse 21st-century Canadian music scene.

Listeners will hear each of the distinctive, ancient musical traditions represented on the album—Chinese, Jewish, Persian, Indian, and Western European—take on vibrant new colors when showcased in intercultural orchestrations. The album offers a glimpse into the limitless creative possibilities of the intercultural orchestra.

fire in my mouth
New Releases, Products

Julia Wolfe, Fire in my mouth

fire in my mouth

Julia Wolfe’s large-scale work for choir and orchestra Fire in my mouth was recorded live at the world premiere in January 2019 by the New York Philharmonic, The Crossing, and The Young People’s Chorus of New York City. New York Philharmonic musicians are members of Local 802 (New York City).

The piece was inspired by the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which claimed the lives of 146 New York City garment workers—most of whom were young immigrant women—in 1911, and the political unrest surrounding it.

The recording features 146 female vocalists—commemorating the total number who perished in the fire—and incorporates elements derived from protest chants, courtroom testimonies, Yiddish and Italian folk songs, and an elegiac recitation of all 146 victims’ names.

boston symphony commissions
New Releases, Products

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Commissions

boston symphony commissions

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has added another CD to its extensive discography: recent Boston Symphony Orchestra commissions of works by American composers Timo Andres, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and George Tsontakis. BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO musicians, who are members of Local 9-535 (Boston, MA), in recordings made live at Symphony Hall from February 2016 through February 2018. The album joins two other Boston Symphony Orchestra CDs issued earlier this year.

The latest album includes:

  • Eric Nathan, “the space of a door”
  • George Tsontakis, “Sonnets, Tone poems for English horn and orchestra”
  • Timo Andres, “Everything Happens So Much”
  • Sean Shepherd, “Express Abstractionism”