New Music Monday — Bernie Senensky, John Bishop, Stacey Kent

Listen in as Arturo Gómez on Lunchtime! for New Music Monday on November 6 at noon. You’ll hear new music from Bernie Senensky, John Bishop, and Stacy Kent!

Bernie Senensky: “Moment to Moment”
Like the music itself, jazz is a multiple-use word, it can be used as a verb, an adjective, or a noun. Pianist Bernie and his trio express all 3 uses of jazz throughout this recording by Senensky hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba who has been living in Toronto since 1968. Bernie enlisted the veteran Eric Alexander to play tenor saxophone and has Kieran Overs and Dave Young taking turns at bass while Joe Farnsworth and Morgan Childs do the same at the drums.  The seven tracks include two originals from Bernie, a tribute to Pat Martino composed by Eric Alexander and a rousing rendition of “Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on the Roof.”

John Bishop: “Antwerp”
The trio of this recording have played together in the studios and stages of Belgium, France, and Russia for 13 years! They have attended many jazz conferences in Europe and have shared musical knowledge and experiences creating very tight bonds among them. The leader of the trio is John Bishop who in addition to being an outstanding drummer, is the proprietor of the award-winning Seattle-based Origin Records and its subsidiary, OA2 Records. John’s colleagues and close friends are Belgium musicians, pianist Bram Weijters and bassist Piet Verbist. One of the stand-out tracks is the closer, “Contemplative” written by Bram which was inspired by McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation”. The motive for it being a tribute to John Bishop’s mother who passed away shortly before this recording was done in Belgium, even at 91 years of age, she was attending jazz concerts to their conclusion and then hanging out with the musicians after the gig. What a lady! I sure wish I could’ve had the pleasure of meeting her.

Stacy Kent: “Summer me, Winter me”
Although she was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the superlative Grammy® nominated vocalist achieved her greatest success in Europe where she is immensely popular and sold over a million copies of her albums and received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Minister of Culture in 2009. Stacy and her saxophonist, composer, and arranger husband Jim Tomlinson have been a formidable team collaborating on stage and in the recording studios. This new album is a collection of 11 songs Kent and Tomlinson have performed many times live but never recorded, with 1 exception, “If You Go Away” which she recorded in 2018 but here, it’s updated with strings. This session’s music is ideal for a Sunday afternoon or a romantic evening.

Now in its 21st year of debuting the latest arrivals to the KUVO Jazz library, many of them are played ahead of their official release date. In addition to the music comments, I’ll provide a few tidbits about the artist, if it’s a new or an up-and-coming artist. It all begins at Noon every Monday.

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