New Music Monday — Brandon Sanders; Bob Baldwin; Jazz Is Dead

Host Arturo Gómez debuts new music from Brandon Sanders, Bob Baldwin, and Jazz Is Dead on Monday, October 7 at noon on Lunchtime!

Brandon Sanders: “The Tables Will Turn”
Originally from Compton California, Brandon made an impactful debut album in 2023, “Compton’s Finest.” Now Sanders returns with his sequel which will continue to earn him more fans and accolades. Brandon left his home to attend the University of Kansas to study communications and play on the basketball team. While there he told a teammate that he wanted to play drums to which he responded, “Man, you didn’t start at three years old and now you’re nineteen, forget it.” After obtaining his advanced degree in social work, Brandon enrolled in the Berklee School of Music to continue learning how to play the drums.

After graduating from Berklee, Sanders moved to New York City where during the day he worked as a social worker, and at night he would sit in at different jam sessions until he encountered his former Berklee School classmate, vibraphonist Warren Wolf who seeing how much Brandon’s drumming had advanced helped him to get signed to Savant for his first recording. For his sophomore release, Sanders has his friend Warren Wolf on vibes, David Wong on bass, and Keith Brown at the piano with several guests throughout the playlist.

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Bob Baldwin: “Songs My Father Would Dig”
Having the good fortune of growing up with a father who was gifted with multiple talents, Bob Baldwin is forever grateful for the gifts he shared. Every afternoon and evening, Baldwin’s dad would play an array of jazz legends on his audiophile stereo system which inspired him to start playing the upright piano in the living room. Since beginning his professional jazz career, pianist Bob has traveled to perform on every continent except Antarctica and recorded over thirty albums of which he owns the rights of twenty-five of them on his label. Baldwin has also been the radio host of “New Urban Jazz” since 2008. He is also a professional photographer, a skill he learned from his father.

For his first recording since the pandemic, Baldwin wanted to honor his dad, he learned that there was a one-hundred-year-old piano at a recording studio in Queens, NY. He recruited his musical friends; Richie Goods to play the bass, Tony Lewis-drums, and Café-Edson da Silva on percussion. In addition to recording songs his father loved like, “Dolphin Dance,” “Equinox” and “Blue Soul,” Bob Baldwin included a homage to his cousin, the awesome pianist for Fort Apache Band, Hugh Masekela and others, Larry Willis with a superb rendition of Larry’s “To Wisdom the Prize.”

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Jazz Is Dead: “21”
The hip hop producers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge who have worked with A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, and others decided to merge their skills and started up the Jazz Is Dead label in 2017. Their mission was to couple jazz giants with contemporary hip-hop production values, and it has been a success! Some of the titans of jazz they have worked with are Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, Brian Jackson, and others. Volume 21 is a compilation featuring the elder statesman of Ghanaian highlife music, Ebo Taylor, and among others, Dom Salvador who is recognized as the father of Black Rio music and was the former music director for Harry Belafonte. In addition to their recordings, Jazz Is dead specializes in live concerts often coming to Denver.

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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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