Sony Music proudly announces the release of GOTTI (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), starring John Travolta in the title role. The movie arrives in theatres today - June 15, 2018. The album features the film's original score music by GRAMMY® Award-winning, multi-platinum international music icon, business entrepreneur and motivational Armando Christian Perez, aka Pitbull, and his long-time Grammy-winning producer Jorge Gomez. The project marks Pitbull's first assignment scoring a motion picture soundtrack. The soundtrack also includes three solo Pitbull tracks, one of them being the single AMORE featuring Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Leona Lewis. "Everything about Pitbull - his style, creativity, and culture make his scoring of Gotti - the perfect marriage of the artist and the material" stated John Travolta. Pitbull and Travolta discuss their collaboration on the film from NYC's Central Park on ABC's GMA - Concert Series.
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A song by Professional Studies faculty member Derrick Wang is featured on a new recording, Notorious RBG in Song. The collection of world-premiere recordings salutes the life and work of legal pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg in celebration of her completion of 25 years on the United States Supreme Court. The album includes the aria, "You are Searching in Vain for a Bright-Line Solution," from Wang's opera Scalia/Ginsburg. An updated version of Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg, was presented at the 2017 Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y. The opera featured Peabody faculty artist William Burden, a Glimmerglass artist in residence, in the role of Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia/Ginsburg is about the relationship between Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, played by Glimmerglass Young Artist Mary Beth Nelson. A special Q&A session with Justice Ginsburg followed the performance. READ THE FULL The Peabody Post ARTICLE

The rarely seen musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever returns to New York City in a new production at the Irish Repertory Theatre. The Lerner and Lane tuner stars Melissa Errico, Stephen Bogardus, and John Cudia, who took a break from rehearsal to preview tunes including "On the S.S. Bernard Cohn," "Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here," and the title number. Performances begin June 15. Daisy Gamble is a woman of extrasensory talents - she sings and flowers bloom, and she always knows where you've placed your keys - but it's her smoking habit that leads her to Dr. Mark Bruckner, a psychiatrist who attempts to hypnotize her addiction away. In Daisy, Dr. Bruckner discovers the case - and perhaps the love - of his life as he unlocks her past self, an 18th-century British aristocrat named Melinda Welles. Mark becomes increasingly enamored of Melinda as he watches her relive her great love affair with Edward Moncrief. All is going well until Mark decides to publish his findings, and Daisy realizes she's been unwittingly along for the ride! This 1965 musical by Burton Lane (composer) and Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) has one of Broadway's most beautiful scores, including the songs "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?" and the title number.  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} SEE TheaterMania.com PAGE

Kurt Elling summarizes the state of jazz singing almost every time he hits the recording studio, His latest, The Questions, is no exception. That doesn't mean that all of Elling's recordings are equally successful, but - with his exquisite instrument and his instinct for balancing traditional jazz vocal traditions with a modern approach - he is a singer who always has his finger on what matters. The Questions is a probing program that interrogates a wide swath of American songwriting, from Hoagy Carmichael to Paul Simon to jazz composers Carla Bley and Jaco Pastorius. It doesn't feel like a Whitman's sampler, however, because Elling and co-producer Branford Marsalis provide focus through arrangements and a band that are lean but not loose. The result is a collection that has stylistic range but feels like straight-up meat on the bone: music that has the harmonic and structural complexity of "jazz" but that serves the songs, first and foremost.      Photo: Anna Webber  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL popmatters ARTICLE

A new Sony Classical release from Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell showcases two masterpieces from romantic composer Max Bruch. Available June 22, the album features Bell's first recording of the virtuosic Scottish Fantasy as well asa new recording of the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor,which he first recorded over thirty years ago with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner. Now, as Music Director of the Academy, Bell both performs and directs the orchestra, and offers a fresh take on the Bruch Concerto in addition to a thrilling performance of the Scottish Fantasy.  In conjunction with the new release, JB has made time to speak on 2 separate days, with Radio outlets throughout the US. The first session took place on June 4, and todayJB will be speaking with WETA: Wash DC, KING: Seattle, WRCJ: Detroit, All Classical Portland, WQED: Pittsburgh, Spokane Public Radio, Net Nebraska and Radio Purdue.  Watch for our tweets throughout the day.

History was written in 2000 BC, and 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of Brahms' Lullaby, so this precious musical tradition has deep cultural and emotional roots. These personal songs bring people together, span generations, and tell stories about where we come from, who we are now, and our hopes for the future. The legacy continues with the release of Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project on Decca Gold (Verve Label Group). The recording is inspired by the Lullaby Project, a program of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute which pairs pregnant women, new mothers, and family members with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Featuring fifteen lullabies written by parents from across New York City, as performed by Fiona Apple, the Brentano String Quartet, Lawrence Brownlee, Rosanne Cash, Janice Freeman (The Voice 2017), Rhiannon Giddens (Nashville), Angélique Kidjo, Patti LuPone, Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs), Dianne Reeves, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Pretty Yende, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hopes and Dreams highlights Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who lends her renowned vocal talents to the project's title track, recorded with the Brentano String Quartet. Joyce has been involved with the Lullaby Project for over five years and met Elsa Negron, the mother who wrote "Hopes and Dreams," when she performed the song at a special concert hosted by Carnegie Hall. Elsa commented, "I was astonished that anyone – especially a famous musician and an opera singer at that – wanted to sing my song. The message I wanted to send to my daughter and future children is that you can do anything you set your mind to do." Joyce, who along with producer Glen Roven was a driving force in initiating the idea of a Lullaby Project album, said about Elsa and the mothers involved in the program, "This project, for me, the common denominator is music and love… I don't think there is any more important relationship than that between mother and child… and it is quite incredible to meet a young woman who has written this for her child, and then she gives me the honor of being able to give voice and breath to it." In conjunction with this project, Ms. DiDonato has made herself available today Thursday June 14, to speak with Classical Radio Stations throughout the US. Participatipating outlets include: WQXR - New York, WFMT - Chicago and All Classical Portland. Watch for our tweets.

The Jazz Journalists Association Awards is an annual ritual for writers, musicians, and music industry types. On Tuesday evening June 13, the hundred or so people gathered at The New School's Theresa Lang Center crowded into the frame. The man with the camera (writer-photographer Michael Jackson) commanded his subjects to "squeeze in," a process that kept everyone on their toes, quite literally, and brought forth peals of laughter. There could have been no more apt scene, for an artistic community remarkable for its closeness. But it also captured what might be considered a watershed moment in jazz. Of the 29 awards given to musicians in 2018, a dozen went to women - a record number in this male-dominated field. Singer Jazzmeia Horn won Up and Coming Musician of the Year. And for the first time in the 22-year history of the awards, the award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism went to a female writer: Patricia Willard. Nicole Mitchell accepting Best Flutist at the JJA Awards on June 12, 2018. Linda May Han Oh won for Best Bassist, and cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, and baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, were present to accept their awards. After accepting her award, Bloom offered some perspective. "In the 1970s, the first women's jazz festivals shone a light on female performers and offered one idea of what they could be," she said. "Today you can see an expansiveness in the musical vision of the women here, a uniqueness, depth, intellect, and full range of expression. I'm so pleased to be in such rich and beautiful company."       See the complete list of the winners on JJA website      photo: ENID FARBER READ THE FULL WBGO ARTICLE

The soundtrack to Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name is getting a special limited "peach season" vinyl release. Music on Vinyl is issuing the 2xLP set on August 3. Only 7,777 copies will be pressed on the peach-colored and -scented vinyl, and it will only be available "in Peach Harvest season." The CMBYN soundtrack features songs by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Giorgio Mororder, the Psychedelic Furs, and more. It also includes two original songs by Sufjan Stevens: "Mystery of Love" and "Visions of Gideon." The former was nominated for the Oscar Award for Best Original Song. Stevens took the stage at the 2018 Academy Awards to perform the track alongside St. Vincent, Moses Sumney, Chris Thile, and others. SEE Pitchfork PAGE

Wednesday's MEDICINE BALL CARAVAN on KRVS fills your late morning cup with new releases by Cowboy Junkies, Lera Lynn w/ Dylan Leblanc, Brother Dege and Zuider Zee. Also: some Patti Smith, Simo, Ten Years After, David Crosby, Rasputina, Project Trio and Jethro Tull. HOSTED BY CECIL DOYLE, The Medicine Ball Caravan on KRVS: Lafayette LA, an eclectic mix of folk, rock, singer/songwriters, in-studio performances and interviews is heard every MONDAY-THURSDAY 11:00AM-12:00 PM, TUESDAY-FRIDAY 2:00-3:00 AM.  SEE THE PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

The Last of Us 2 composer Gustavo Santaolalla kicked off the Sony E3 2018 event, by performing the game's main theme prior to its first gameplay trailer being debuted at the show. Santaolalla played the theme in front of a packed crowd herded into a church-like setting, intended to replicate the location of the game's trailer. Gustavo Santaolalla previously composed The Last of Us, though he has worked on a number of prominent projects. Recently, he composed the soundtrack to Netflix's ultra-popular documentary Making a Murderer and the film The Book of Life. You can listen to the main The Last of Us 2 theme HERE via Game Revolution

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) has announced that acclaimed jazz violinist Regina Carter will serve as Artistic Director of this summer's All-Female Jazz Residency. Carter succeeds the late jazz pianist and composer Geri Allen, the residency's founding Artistic Director. Carter will be accompanied in her new position by a collective of music professionals, some of whom will be faculty members for the week-long curriculum and others as visiting artists to conduct master classes. The overnight residency at Rutgers University-Newark is open to young women musicians, ages 14-25, from July 8-14. "This is a proud moment," she said. "It's a rare opportunity to nurture a community and build confidence in young women of jazz who are embarking on careers in the industry or considering their options. They'll hear straight talk – and learn in the best possible ways – from first-in-class professionals I'm also grateful to call colleagues and collaborators."   SEE New Jersey Stage PAGE

Almost every day, Bill Frisell gets up in the morning, has some coffee, and writes music. At this point, there are piles and piles and piles of single pages of staff paper filled with his graceful script. "I don't know where the melodies come from," says Frisell. "I try not to judge anything and just let them be." Frisell's mantra, or motto so to speak, is, "Music is Good" – a statement said to him by his dear friend and great banjo player Danny Barnes. "That is something that I can say is always true. It's so perfect. Everything I need to know is that phrase, ‘Music is Good.' I almost called the album that, but then I thought that might be too literal. It's good to leave it open." Music IS – released on March 16 via OKeh/Sony Music Masterworks – marks the long awaited solo album from the master of his craft. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} KGNU: Boulder CO, Indra Raj chats with Frisell following the release of 'Music IS' and in advance of his June 13 Boulder Theatre Show.      LISTEN

Interview with KGNU's Indra Raj