Bass CDs
New Album: Mulberry Street Symphony, With Bassist Scott Colley
Mulberry Street Symphony…
Prolific Danish composer Anders Koppel, whose distinguished career includes music for theatre, film, ballet and over 150 scores for various classical ensembles, pays homage to his fellow countryman, the famed photographer and social reformer Jacob Riis, on Mulberry Street Symphony. Riis, who emigrated from his native Denmark to America in 1870, exposed the poor living conditions of impoverished immigrants in his groundbreaking photojournalism book, “How the Other Half Lives.” Inspired by Riis’ compelling photographs, Koppel created Mulberry Street Symphony, an epic work in seven movements, each one based on a different Riis photo depicting tenement life in New York City during the 1880s. “The work is a eulogy to the life and dreams of these people,” said the composer.
Koppel’s symphony for jazz trio and orchestra (the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates) showcases the composer’s son, alto saxophonist Benjamin Koppel, as the main voice through all seven movements. The work is underscored by the world-class rhythm tandem of bassist Scott Colley, whose sideman credits include work with Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Carmen McRae and Andrew Hill, and drumming great Brian Blade, a longtime member of the Wayne Shorter Quintet who has also toured and recorded with Bill Frisell, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. As Koppel noted of the flexible trio of Colley, Blade and his son Benjamin, “With their profound understanding of the music and their capacity for catching the moment, they melt effortlessly into the symphony orchestra and move the work to where the border between notation and improvising disappears.”
In capturing the essence of Riis’ striking photos in music, Koppel deftly integrates symphonic elements with jazz improvisation while also conjuring up a wide palette of colors and moods along the way. “The whole symphonic score is completely developed and notated, but I didn’t write that much for the trio,” he explained. “Great musicians have fantastic ears. And I wanted to take advantage of that by giving Brian, Scott and Benjamin the freedom that I knew that they could fill. And they interpreted my vision completely.”
Each of the seven movements of Mulberry Street Symphony is a dramatic piece that tells a story in sound. The cinematic opening track, “Stranded in the City,” conveys the sights and sensations of an immigrant’s arrival into New York City during the latter part of the 19th century. Benjamin Koppel commented on his father’s gift for capturing the extra-musical in his scores. “The way that he uses his music to describe feelings and stories and emotions and even actions is more like an abstract painter would paint a feeling. And because we know him so well, we know his intentions and we can hear his stories and we can relate to it all the way. And so that made this collaboration very easy and open for us to just go into exploring mode.”
As the expansive “Stranded in the City” develops, Benjamin’s alto sax alternately darts and soars to convey its shifting moods, from pensive apprehension to giddy optimism. Anders described the newly-arrived immigrant in Riis’ photo this way: “He’s a 19-year old boy in his best, maybe only suit, stranded on a staircase, in the corner, outside closed doors, hoping for food and lodging. Something happened to his eye. The pulsating sounds of the big city resound from the streets. The wondering, curious and shy look of his eye tell a story of arrival, isolation and will to survive.”
Equally cinematic, while also deftly straddling the through-composed and improvisational divide, are the gentle lullaby “Minding the Baby” and the frantic 20-minute “Tommy the Shoeshine Boy,” the latter featuring facile, Bird-like flights by Benjamin throughout, along with some ecstatic blowing over the more turbulent sections. The poignant and moody tone poem “Blind Man” is meant to portray the lonely figure in Riis’ compelling photo. As Koppel noted: “Always standing on the same spot, leaning slightly agains the lamppost at the corner, peddling his rubber-tipped pencils. The darkness in his gaze, the dignity of his posture.” The composer added, “I tried to convey a special character, a man who is very much himself, apart from society, in a sense. But then again, the music took on its own way.”
A dramatic “The Last Mulberry” is trudging, blues-tinged requiem for the last mulberry tree in Little Italy. As Koppel wrote: “A blues for the tree and for the time closing in. Still blooming every spring, its leaves became more and more sparse. In the end it was cut down.” The conversational playing between Benjamin Koppel, Scott Colley and Brian Blade enlivens this track as the orchestra swirls around the interactive trio.
The unabashedly swinging “Bandit’s Roost” is perhaps the most dynamic and freewheeling track of the set. With Colley and Blade setting the kinetic pulse, Benjamin wails with rare abandon and authority over the top of this up-tempo burner. Koppel described the Riis photo that inspired the invigorating music: “Young Italian mobsters posing underneath their mothers’ laundry hanging out to dry. Fragments of a popular song echo between the walls while plans are being made and energies collected, ready to burst.”
Mulberry Street Symphony closes on a comforting note with the hopeful hymn, “The New House,” based on a 1894 Riis photo of a new home for orphans and homeless children that he helped build on a green hill in the countryside. As Koppel noted: “The simplicity of the hymn reflects the hope and knowledge that lies behind this photo: things will change – and it matters what you do.”
In the process of putting the music together for Mulberry Street Symphony, Koppel said, “I was inspired by
the Riis photos but my aim was not to make a sort of programmatic piece. The music has its freedom always, as it should have. The music often has its own will. So my point of departure was the photographs, but then the music sometimes sort of took over.”
The significance of Koppel, born into a musical family in Copenhagen in 1947, now honoring the legacy of the Danish-American immigrant Riis at a time of increasing debate over the growing wave of refugees and immigrants around the world was not lost on the Danish composer. “In my family’s history there are these two immigrant stories: Firstly, my grandparents coming to Denmark in the beginning of the 20th century as Jewish immigrants from Poland. At that time, Poland was occupied by Russia and there were always pogroms on the Jews, so they fled to Denmark and made a living there. And secondly, my parents and my sisters were refugees from Hitler during World War II. When Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, they fled to Sweden. So the idea of being an immigrant has always been very present in my thinking. And these days, in this time of history, the whole issue of refugees that have no home and immigrants desperately trying to come into other countries is ever present. It’s a mess and it’s a tragedy. So that was another line of thinking in this new work.”
The son of classical composer and pianist Herman D. Koppel, Anders Koppel was a child singer in the Copenhagen Boys Choir and studied piano with his sister and father from the age of five. He also played the recorder and later clarinet and made several television and concert appearances as a youngster, including the first performance of his father’s Variations in 1962 at age 15. He took up the Hammond organ in 1966 and the following year founded with his brother Thomas the legendary Danish rock group The Savage Rose. The band toured Europe extensively from 1967 to 1974 and even made a Stateside appearance in 1969 at the Newport Jazz Festival while also recording eight albums in studios located in London, New York, Los Angeles, Rome and Copenhagen. Koppel left the group in 1974 to make his first solo recordings, Valmuevejen with singer Otto Brandenburg, and Aftenlandet, a progressive instrumental album. In 1976 he cofounded with bassoonist-clarinetist Peter Bastian and percussionist Flemming Quist Møller the trendsetting world music trio Bazaar. The band played together for 37 years until 2013.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Koppel wrote music for 50 plays, eight modern large-scale ballets and more than 100 movies. Since 1997, he has devoted himself to composing for classical ensembles and has completed 150 scores to date — solo pieces, chamber music, orchestral and vocal works, an opera and 33 concertos for solo instrument with orchestra. His saxophonist son Benjamin has been a featured player in six of his concertos. Father and son have also been playing together in recent years in a highly interactive quartet setting with Colley and Blade.
In the process of composing Mulberry Street Symphony, Koppel said, “I thought about the relationships between America and my country, and all the fantastic music that has been brought to us from America that has in many ways changed our lives and inspired us endlessy. And then Jacob Riis ran through my mind because I knew his story. I had just seen an exhibition in Copenhagen of his photographs, which impressed me very deeply. And so there was another link between Denmark and America.”
As a fully-realized work seeking to bridge the worlds of classical and modern jazz, Anders Koppel’s Mulberry Street Symphony is in the lineage of such successful orchestral works as Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown & Beige (1943), Miles Davis-Gil Evans’ Sketches of Spain (1960), Stan Getz’s Focus (1961) and the Claus Ogerman-Michael Brecker collaboration on Cityscape (1982). And like many of his past works, it brings together Koppel’s love of symphonic music and jazz improvisation in organic fashion. “I think that has been my language ever since I started writing scores,” he said. “I believe that the musical language that you have as a composer is a result of the life you have lived and the music you have studied and loved. My music has traces of all the music that I have been occupied with in my fairly long life —
classical, jazz, Cuban music, Italian folk songs, Turkish music. There’s so much fantastic music that influenced me during my life and all of that is in the music too. It’s all combined in my language, I believe.”
Added Benjamin Koppel, “I think all his music is very much his own music. He has his totally own voice and his own direction, which is this borderland between classical and jazz or rhythmical music. And because he was a performer himself, he has always been able to write music that all the members of the symphony orchestra love to play. He was a clarinet wunderkind when he was a child and performed of a lot of my grandfather’s clarinet pieces when he was 10, 12, 14 years old. So he knows what it’s like to be a wind player, but he’s also an extraordinary Hammond organ player and pianist as well. So he knows the instruments and he knows the importance of having fun while playing but also being challenged by the music. So he makes sure that every voice in the symphony orchestra is swinging and melodic and important. That is very much a part of his sound and his personal approach. And I think that’s a line going through all this orchestral works.”
Mulberry Street Symphony is scheduled to be released on February 18, 2022 via Unit Records.
Bass CDs
New Music: Five of the Greatest Living Bassists Appear on One Album – Kenny Peagler’s We Are Just Human
Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Will Lee, Jimmy Haslip, and Bakithi Kumalo each anchor different tracks on the new release from the acclaimed pianist and composer, produced by Grammy-winning drummer Poogie Bell
It is rare for a single album to gather even one bass icon. We Are Just Human, the new vocal album from pianist and composer Kenny Peagler, brings together five of the most influential bassists alive — each taking a different track, each bringing a distinct voice to the low end.
Marcus Miller plays on “Come Close To Me” and “Kiss and Make Up.” Five-time Grammy winner Victor Wooten anchors “Time Machine.” Will Lee appears on “Like No One’s In the Room” and “I Believe,” Jimmy Haslip on “Where Is The Love,” and Bakithi Kumalo — the voice behind some of the most recognizable bass lines in pop history — on “Live This Life For You.” The result is a record that doubles as a master class in modern bass: five players, five philosophies, one cohesive body of songs.
The album is produced by Grammy-winning drummer Poogie Bell, a fellow Pittsburgh native who holds down the kit across all nine tracks. The supporting cast extends the pedigree further, with saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and percussionist Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez among the contributors.
At the center is Peagler himself — a classically trained pianist with more than three decades on international stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Umbria Jazz Festival to a performance for President Barack Obama. With We Are Just Human, he steps forward as a vocalist and songwriter for the first time, building songs sturdy enough to hold a roster of this caliber.
Critics have taken note. Music Connection awarded the album 8 out of 10, praising Peagler’s voice as “strong and warm” and the musicianship throughout as exceptional, while SoulTracks highlighted the project as revealing a powerful new dimension of an artist long respected on the bandstand.
For bass players, the appeal is direct: a chance to hear Miller, Wooten, Lee, Haslip, and Kumalo on the same album, in service of the song rather than the solo. The masters are owned outright, and isolated bass stems, hi-res audio, and interviews with Kenny Peagler and Poogie Bell are available on request.
We Are Just Human is out now on Apple Music, Spotify, and all major streaming platforms.
Visit online at www.kennypeagler.com
Danielle Nicole is excited to announce the release of her new album Fireflies, arriving August 28 via 40 Below Records. Pre-order here. Alongside the announcement, Nicole is sharing the album’s powerful new single, “Tug Of War,” a soulful anthem about reclaiming strength in the face of imbalance and emotional exhaustion.
“I wrote ‘Tug Of War’ for anyone finding themself no longer willing to accept the terms of a one way relationship,” says Danielle.
Long celebrated for her commanding voice, masterful bass playing, and emotionally fearless songwriting, Danielle Nicole traces the beginning of her musical journey back to a transformative moment in her teenage years: seeing Etta James perform live in Kansas City.
“We had a great blues festival in Kansas City,” Nicole recalls, “and I was able to see Etta James perform. She was fearless. My parents were musicians who played in cover bands, so music was always part of my family — but I didn’t realize I wanted to sing and perform, too, until I heard Etta.”
That reverence for the great soul singers, storytellers, and trailblazers who came before her has fueled a career spanning nearly 25 years, including 10 Blues Music Awards, a Grammy nomination, and international acclaim as both a songwriter and performer. With Fireflies, Nicole delivers what may be her most personal and musically adventurous statement yet — a raw, deeply felt collection recorded live to analog tape that explores grief, resilience, empowerment, and transformation through a rich blend of blues, soul, R&B, and roots music.
“There’s a lot of soul-driven music here,” she says. “A lot of storytelling. It’s a major step forward in my songwriting.”
Visit online at daniellenicolemusic.com/
Grammy Award-winning bassist, composer and cherished educator John Clayton — one of jazz’s most celebrated voices on the instrument — has released Two-o Duo, his 8th leader album exclusively via ArtistShare. This much-anticipated release features his longtime collaborator, vocalist and contemporary storyteller René Marie, and his son & frequent musical partner, 7-time Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Gerald Clayton. With a strong focus on duo playing, Two-o Duo presents 11 songs, spotlighting a range of material through different cultural eras, plus lyrical and compositional contributions from both Marie and the Claytons, respectively.
The worldwide digital release of Two-o Duo will be on July 3, 2026.
While the duo context and its many iterations shapes the project’s sound, Clayton seized the opportunity to explore further: “Since we were all there [in the studio], hanging out on the same day, why not do a few trio things as well?” Together, the three artists breathe through the repertoire, filling and leaving space and letting resonances linger. They embrace all that’s intimate and vulnerable. “Some really magical things happened,” he says. “If you’re close with somebody and you’re in the room with them, both of you feel the closeness that you share. There’s no word for it. It’s intangible. But it’s very real.”
When he began gathering ideas for the record, Clayton encouraged Marie to share repertoire selections that held meaning for her. His goal was to center her personal & eclectic musical tastes as part of the album’s character and development. “She’s not just singing jazz tunes,” says Clayton. “She’s singing songs that she would hear on AM radio, for instance, and pop hits. She’ll just walk around her house singing these tunes and the next thing you know, she’s asking her group if she can do these songs. She’s always been like that, which is a cool thing that I’ve always loved about her.”
The album opens on an utterly syncopated invention of “Blue Bayou,” the early ’60s ballad made famous by its co-composer Roy Orbison, then later by Linda Ronstadt. “We came up with this other vibe,” says Clayton. “I liken it to a cart that’s missing a wheel. It’s always just a little bit off.” With certain harmonic exceptions that allow the song to breathe through Marie’s treatment of the lyric, the Claytons keep it weird, anchored throughout by Clayton’s characteristically fluid yet propulsive bass lines. — even through Gerald’s piano solo. “It’s as if he didn’t want to destroy the weirdness.”
Two-o Duo’s first instrumental, Gerald’s blues composition “Nail… In Need” expands the album’s familial connection. When he performed it live at Pasadena’s Bacchus Kitchen, his godfather, drummer Jeff “Hammer” Hamilton fell in love with the aptly named tune and recorded it with his trio. Another deeply felt, intuitive gesture, “Beautiful” showcases Marie’s ability to embody a lyric’s poetry, musicality and stark humanness. “There’s a beautiful arc to this song where you feel René preaching with more intensity as the song goes on,” says Clayton. She amplifies that energy through her part-spoken, part-sung performance of “On the Day You Were Born,” taking her lead from Clayton’s melodic and conversational bass intro. After reading through Marie’s original lyrics ,and experiencing their dramatic yet intimate delivery, both John and Gerald contributed pieces of the composition, leaving plenty of room for the unfolding of Marie’s story. “I was frozen by its dramatic impact on me,” says Clayton. Together, they recorded a single take. “When it was over and we listened back, I said, ‘We could do another take, but it won’t be better. It’ll be different but it won’t be better.’ So we left it.”
A song that touches so many listeners through so many generations, Martin Rojas’ “En La Orilla del Mundo” pays homage to Charlie Haden and features John and Gerald at their most tender and resonant. Opening on piano-arco duo, the artists treat the iconic melody with curiosity and care. “It’s one of those songs I’m jealous I didn’t write,” says Clayton. “I don’t know what I’m capable of but I wish I were capable of writing a song like that [laughs].” Back and forth between them, Clayton and Marie pass intimate energy, dream walking through Billy Joel’s timeless love song “For the Longest Time.”
Combining “When You’re Smiling,” “Smile,” “Make Someone Happy” and a sweet shadow of “Put on a Happy Face,” Two-o Duo’s “Smile Medley” shares a moment of joy, with an almost literal translation of something abstract: genuine connection between artists. Marie provided the song selections but the arrangement, according to Clayton, was a team effort. Of their approach to “Some Other Time,” he says, “I feel Rio in the air on this one.” Clayton’s tight arrangement creates the movement of brushes without the brushes. “It’s a samba but we allow the listener to provide the drums.”
The arco tremolo introducing Duke Ellington’s treasured ballad “Come Sunday” sets the tone for a fog lifting moment when Gerald’s piano enters. “There’s a completeness to this song that’s absent in the first A because it’s just René and me,” says Clayton. “And then when that A comes in again, it’s Gerald. And now he’s got the entire orchestra — the piano — to fill in the gaps that you weren’t getting when it was just us.”
Clayton and Marie deliver a contemplative, rubato verse and ending on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Her handling of the verse prompted Clayton, again, to pull out his bow. “René knows how to invite freedom and inspire creativity,” he says. “It’s what every artist wants to bathe in.” Two-o Duo concludes on Gerald’s layering composition “Forth,” performed as a duo with Clayton. The latter creates a bass orchestra in concert with Gerald’s piano and collection of keyboards. “I didn’t know what the song was about. I just had to read the music and watch it unfold. It wasn’t until the mix that I finally went, ‘Ahh…’ and heard how the pieces came together … It’s like unwrapping a gift.”
Dedicated to Clayton’s dear friend, the recently departed engineer Joel Moss, Two-o Duo is a gesture toward connection, in generous tribute to family, friendship and the sacred bond between artist and listener. “There’s always something spiritual about people who are related. It usually isn’t conscious and it doesn’t always have to be in your face. There’s some kind of line unspoken that’s going through there. I may not be related to René but we’re sharing energy. And the audience may not know what’s going on but they’re going to feel something, too.”
Bassist Chuck Bergeron has enjoyed working in a wide variety of settings over the course of his more than four-decade career, from hard-charging small groups to the boisterous big band swing of his South Florida Jazz Orchestra. But he has especially cherished his interactions with singers.
On his new album, Bass and Face, Bergeron realizes his long-held dream to pair up with some of his favorite vocalists for a set of intimate duets. Out June 5, 2026 via Summit Records, Bass and Face features a world-class roster of voices pairing with Bergeron on a diverse repertoire of songs. The line-up includes Janis Siegel of the legendary Manhattan Transfer, Pete McGuinness, Roseanna Vitro, George Rabbai, Lisanne Lyons, Deborah Silver (Grammy-nominated for her 2025 collaboration with the Count Basie Orchestra), Kate Reid and Nicole Yarling, as well as two iconic singers who are no longer with us: Sheila Jordan, who passed away shortly after the recording, and Kevin Mahogany, whose contributions stem from a 2005 session undertaken during Bergeron’s seven-year stint in the singer’s band.
Bassist Tony Saunders Reimagines Two R&B Classics on “Return of the Mack (I Like It)” with GRAMMY® Nominee Gerald Albright
During January’s NAMM Show, two?time EMMY?winning bassist Tony Saunders played a demo mashup of Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” that weaves in El DeBarge’s “I Like It” for 9?time GRAMMY® nominee Gerald Albright. The saxophonist instantly heard its radio potential and agreed to play on the recording. The newly released single is now climbing the Billboard and Mediabase charts.
Joining Saunders and Albright on the track is GRAMMY®-winning keyboardist Michael Mani (Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Tori Kelly), who produced the single with Saunders along with playing keyboards, synths, key bass, vocal processing, drum programming, and guitar synths. John Mitchell added live drums to anchor the rhythm track.
“I’ve always loved ‘Return of the Mack’ — the groove is off the hook — and I knew I’d record it someday. ‘I Like It’ has also been one of my favorites, and because it’s in the same key, the mashup came together naturally. The reaction from fans when we play it live is incredible,” said Saunders, who records for the Baja/TSR label and received clearance to release the single on his own imprint.
Saunders dedicates the new single to the memory of two of his cousins, Kurt Kaywood and Oliver Rodgers. They passed away two weeks apart as Saunders was finishing up work on the track. “They played an important part of my life, always introducing me to new things.”
“Return of the Mack” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996. El DeBarge’s “I Like It” was the group’s breakthrough hit, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B chart in 1982.
Last week, Saunders was on-set in Sacramento shooting a cameo appearance in the Belton Mouras Entertainment film Fingers: The Vegan Zombie Musical, which is expected this Halloween. In addition to scoring several films, Saunders made his big screen debut in 1986 in the Francis Ford Coppola blockbuster Peggy Sue Got Married playing in a scene as a band member of Nicolas Cage.
Saunders’ musical path began with taking piano lessons from Herbie Hancock. He was gifted with an organ by Sly Stone and received his first bass from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Tom Fogerty. His professional career began when he was invited to play in his father’s band. His father was Merl Saunders, and the co-band’s leader was Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia. Tony Saunders’ diverse musical journey spans jazz, funk, rock, R&B, and Latin music. He also composed the musical Rock Justice with Jefferson Starship’s Marty Balin.
Saunders debuted as a solo artist with 2011’s Romancing the Bass. His latest collection, 2024’s The Romance Continues, spawned multiple Billboard Top 10 hits. Over the years, Saunders has collaborated with contemporary jazz luminaries Jeff Lorber,Paul Brown, Paul Jackson Jr., Nils, Jeff Ryan, Randy Crawford, Blake Aaron, and Adam Hawley.
In addition to releasing more new music this year, Saunders is eager to perform with his new band: Mitchell on drums, bassist Vernon Hall (Tony! Toni! Tone!), guitarist Tim Landis, and keyboardist Ray Roland.
“I have played with a lot of musicians in my life, but this group really gets the Tony Saunders vibe!”
For more information, please visit www.tonysaunders.com.