Adam Birnbaum

Adam Birnbaum is emerging as one of the top young voices in jazz piano. After receiving an Artist's Diploma from Juilliard as a member of the inaugural class in Jazz Studies in 2003, Mr. Birnbaum went on to win the American Jazz Piano Competition in May 2004 to become the American Pianists Association's Cole Porter fellow in Jazz. In October, 2006, Mr. Birnbaum received the first ever "special honor" prize at the Martial Solal Competition in Paris. An active performer, Mr. Birnbaum has performed in venues such as the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, Kennedy Center Jazz Club, NPR Jazz Christmas 2004, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, Viva Musica Festival in Bratislava, as well as at jazz clubs such as Birdland, Blues Alley, The Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, the Kitano Hotel and the Zinc Bar. Mr. Birnbaum has performed and recorded with legends such as Carl Allen, Wycliffe Gordon, Rodney Green, Victor Lewis, Wynton Marsalis, Lewis Nash, Ira Sullivan, Peter Washington and Ben Wolfe.

Storybook/The Music of Mark Miller

By David DeJesus

Label: Birdland Records
Released: 2025
Track listing: Storybook; Water Lily; Tenderly; Chorale and Alleluia; Sail Away; WTF; Close Your Eyes; Concierto de Aranjuez/Spain; The Doubledown; Nonsense.

Kristina Koller, Stan Getz, and The Peddlers

by Jerome Wilson
May 21, 2025

This program features saxophones, organs, and pianos among other instruments. Musicians heard include Kristina Koller, Stan Getz, Phil Haynes, Sullivan Fortner, and the Peddlers. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Bergen Big Band “Canto Mai" ...

Infinite Connections

By Jihye Lee

Label: Mot��ma Music
Released: 2024
Track listing: Surrender; We Are All from the Same Stream; Born in 1935; Eight Letters; Karma; You Are My Universe; Nowhere Home; In the Darkest Night; Crossing the River of Grace.

Preludes

By Adam Birnbaum

Label: CMFR
Released: 2024
Track listing: Prelude in C major; Prelude in D minor; Prelude in D-flat major; Prelude in E minor; Prelude in E major; Prelude in C-sharp minor; Prelude in E-flat minor; Prelude in G major; Prelude in B-flat minor; Prelude in F major 03:45; Prelude in C minor.

Secret Message

By Joe Syrian

Label: Circle 9 Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Bye Bye Blackbird; Star Eyes; People Make the World Go Round; Here, There and Everywhere; Don��t You Worry ��Bout a Thing; This Masquerade; Night and Day; I Should Care.

Angelo Leonardi's Best Jazz Albums of 2024

by Angelo Leonardi
December 28, 2024

What follows is the list of the albums, both Italian and international, that I most appreciated and, above all, loved in 2024. These are the ones that enriched and inspired me the most, the ones I found myself returning to repeatedly. They are listed in alphabetical order, not by order of preference. In preparing this list ...

I dischi del 2024 secondo Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 20, 2024

Indico i dischi (sia italiani che stranieri) che ho pi�� apprezzato e soprattutto amato nel 2024. Quelli che pi�� mi hanno arricchito e appassionato, quelli che mi sono ritrovato a riascoltare spesso. Tra il primo indicato e l'ultimo non c'�� un ordine di valore, ma solo alfabetico. Non so quanto sia possibile dividere la valutazione “professionale" ...

Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: Secret Message

by Jack Bowers
December 15, 2024

No fuss, no frills here, simply forty-seven or so minutes of generally bright and engaging straight-ahead jazz, stylishly performed by drummer Joe Syrian's admirable Detroit-based octet. This is music the group plays often, blending standards from the Great American Songbook with more recent themes by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Leon Russell and others. ...

Jihye Lee Orchestra: Infinite Connections

by Jack Bowers
October 3, 2024

Some eighty-odd years ago a handful of trailblazers led by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie changed the vocabulary of jazz, introducing bebop as a successor to trad jazz and swing and radically transforming the music's landscape and perspective. Their terminology remained pretty much intact for a number of years, with partisans choosing a path ...