Pierre-Laurent Aimard embarked on an artistic journey into the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Digging deep beneath the surface of one of the composer's greatest works, Aimard's Bach odyssey will span four continents, reaching audiences in fifteen countries with thirty-four performances featuring the first book of The Well-tempered Clavier. Aimard's latest Deutsche Grammophon album presents his mature thoughts on The Well-tempered Clavier Book I, embracing everything from the sublime stillness of its opening Prelude in C major to the labyrinthine twists of the final Fugue in B minor. Pierre-Laurent Aimard - The Well-tempered Clavier is the WETA: Wash DC - CD Pick of the Week and the disc will receive 8 spins per day and a total of 57 during the week (Mar 2 -8). Classical Conversation I've attached a schedule of the air times of the 90-second on-air feature - they're associated with one or two CD Pick spins each day.

Simone Dinnerstein who recently released: Broadway-Lafayette on Sony Classical celebrates the transatlantic link between France and America through the music of George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue), Maurice Ravel (Piano Concerto in G Major), and Philip Lasser (The Circle and the Child: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, written for Dinnerstein). The album was recorded with conductor Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, by Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse. Of Broadway-Lafayette, Dinnerstein says, "Over the centuries, France and America have influenced and supported each other in many ways, and this music explores the link between the two cultures." Simone Dinnerstein spoke with WOSU: Columbus OH - Boyce Lancaster about her new recording. Listen

The Pedrito Martinez Group plays The Dakota in Minneapolis on Wednesday March 4. One of the most exciting Afro-Cuban ensembles of the past decade, the Pedrito Martinez Group has its roots planted firmly in the Afro-Cuban rumba tradition and in the bata rhythms and vocal chants of the music of Yoruba and Santeria. After performing at the Dakota last summer, percussionist/vocalist Martinez and his ensemble are back by popular demand. SEE Jazz Police PAGE

The latest recording by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers features a mainstay of the violin repertoire in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, a world-premiere in of a concerto written for her by Mason Bates, and a short piece to help her daughter sleep written by composer John Corigliano, a Pulitzer, Grammy, and Academy Award winner. All three pieces are delivered beautifully by Meyers on the 1741 ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu violin.  Meyers has been awarded exclusive lifetime use of this fabulous instrument, which she relishes. Anne Akiko Meyers spoke with WOSU: Columbus OH - Boyce Lancaster about her recording, her violin, and the Corigliano lullaby written for her daughter Natalie which has become her regular nighttime companion.

Violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most acclaimed classical musicians of today. With over 40 albums he now takes on the great violin repertoire of Bach on his new Sony Classical CD of the same name. Recorded with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Bell performs Bach's Violin Concertos No. 1 and No. 2, along with an arrangement of Chaconne fron - Partita No. 2, adapted from Mendelssohn's piano accompaniment, the Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita No. 3 for solo violin, using Schumann's accompaniment, and the universally beloved 'Air on the G string'. KBAQ: Tempe AZ - Sterling Beeaff sat down with Bell to discuss the album and the upcoming tour that includes pianist Sam Haywood. The pair are in town to play Arizona's Mesa Arts Center on Wednesday, February 25 with a performance of Brahms, Beethoven, Bartok and Grieg.  

Jimmy Webb plays the Music Box Supper Club this Saturday Feruary 2nd. Responsible for some of the biggest hits in music, and for 50 years now, Webb has been making others famous . . . and rich. But he's come to grips with it. He said.... "if it made me mad, I would have quit a long time ago. When I first got into this business, I noticed that on a 45 (RPM) single, it would say 'GLEN CAMPBELL,' and in parentheses in very tiny letters it would say, 'Jimmy Webb,' '' Webb said. "You knew from Day One that you were not considered to be the important part of the machine, which is ironic, because without this raw material, without these songs, all these highs wouldn't have happened.'' READ THE FULL Cleveland.com ARTICLE

10-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin is set to play the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert (CRR) Hall this week, as part of his Spirityouall tour,  McFerrin has redefined the role of the human voice. On Spirityouall, released in 2013 on Sony Masterworks, he uses recording field recording sound with African-American rhythms to create this melting pot. of folk tradition. SEE THE Daily Sabah PAGE

Modernist Korean composer Unsuk Chin brought her arresting version of Lewis Carroll's iconic creation - Alice in Wonderland to LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall last Friday February 26. The opera featured - Rachele Gilmore as Alice and Christopher Lemmings as Mouse, and Finnish conductor Susanna Malkki conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A huge undertaking, the project was written for Fifteen singers assuming 31 roles and an eclectic orchestra that includes plenty of utensils. Nothing in this opera is easy including executing the high pitched sounds compliments of the Los Angeles Children's Chorus.  READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times REVIEW READ NYTimes REVIEW

Simone Dinnerstein celebrates the time-honored link between France and America through three different composers – Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin and Philip Lasser.  Her album features the world-premiere recording of the Piano Concerto, The Circle and the Child, by Lasser, who wrote the work for Dinnerstein in 2012. The concerto is an amalgam of both French and American musical sound worlds. 'Lasser: Piano Concerto, The Circle and the Child: I, Poco Allegro (11:43)' from Simone Dinnerstein' Broadway - Lafayette ( Sony Classical ) is the WFMT: Chicago - New Release Of the Week. Simone Dinnerstein, piano; MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra / Kristjan Järvi

Jonathan Biss engages with Beethoven as a concert pianist, a teacher and a recording artist. Biss has undertaken a nine-disc recording project of the entire Beethoven sonata cycle. The fourth volume includes the Sonatas Nos 1, 6, 19 and 23 (Appassionata). This year, Biss will relaunch his popular online course ‘Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas,' designed to help both novices and experts understand the composer's piano music.   Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 6 in F major, Op 10 No 2 (15:56) from Jonathan Biss - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol 4 on JB Recordings is the WFMT: Chicago - New Release Of the Week.

Guitarist Bill Frisell, one of the leading lights on his instrument for about three decades now, is putting a little bit of protest back in his music. His current group, a jazz/Americana project, features the unrepentant protest songs of Woody Guthrie. And he's bringing it to the Kansas City's White Theatre@Jewish Community Center this Friday March 5 as part of the Harriman-Jewell Series. Frisell's note-bending playing has always had an elusive, lonesome quality - a quality in common with giants of American music from Hank Williams to John Coltrane. And it has been natural for Frisell to link his jazz with folk, country, pop and Americana: He has been doing it since the '80s. For a show called "Woody Guthrie's Better World," he's bringing his Big Sur Quintet, with violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts and drummer Rudy Royston. (You might remember Scheinman and Royston from a KC appearance with Ben Allison a few years ago.) The multiple-strings sound is a dramatic departure from just about every other jazz band on the road today. But departing from the norm doesn't scare Frisell. Guitar-based events are fairly common around Kansas City, but everything about this one is distinctive. We've heard just about every other giant of jazz guitar in person more than we've heard from Frisell. So this genre-bending show is bound to be one of the highlights of the year.  SEE THE FULL Kansas City Star PAGE     Jazz has been used as entertainment music, dance music, background music and intellectual music. But it has also had an important role as protest music, from the time when it seemed taboo to mix light-skinned and dark-skinned people on the bandstand, through the civil rights era and sometimes even now.     Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article11788904.html#storylink=cpy

Sao Paulo-born & New York City-based bassist - Nilson Matta has just released his new album EastSideRioDrive. Unlike nearly every South American-styled CD this unique, creative discc blends sounds of the South via Romero Lubambo and Cyro Baptista, and North via Anne Drummond and Craig Handy, as well as pianist Edsel Gomez from Puerto Rico. This wonderfully balanced mixture of jazz and brasilian sounds from these two hemispheres is soothing and relaxing in places, gutsy and bold in others. 

Will Friedwald from the Wall Street Journal commented - "To reconsider an old expression, this album doesn't just represent the "best of both worlds" – but rather the collective greatness of at least three or four."  EastSideRioDrive was '#3 Most ADDed'@Jazzweek