All That's Jazz

14/12/2025

is posted on all top platforms worldwide and online at allthatsjazz.net is Part 2 of ATJ Holiday Highlights.

Listen now: https://www.allthatsjazz.net/podcast-1/episode/497eec06/season-6-episode-17-april-varner

April Varner is a rising jazz vocalist and the 2023 winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Her full-length Christmas album, featuring unique and reimagined holiday standards, is called ‘Winter Songs Vol. 2’ just released on the Cellar Music Group label.

We have chosen to showcase the project as one of the standouts from a long list of holiday recordings produced every year at this time. The album features an impressive gathering of Varner collaborators, including GRAMMY- winning producer Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, pianist Luther Allison, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, and an outstanding vocal trio The Sunhouse Singers, featuring June Cavlan, Kate Kortum, and Joie Bianco.

My holiday gift to you is a conversation with this amazing and talented artist about the development of her holiday recording, as well as a little bit about the backstory of a vocalist and a name you’re going to want to remember.

13/12/2025

for Sunday, December 14, posting 8am GMT on all top platforms worldwide and online at allthatsjazz.net is Part 2 of ATJ Holiday Highlights.
April Varner is a rising jazz vocalist and the 2023 winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Her full-length Christmas album, featuring unique and reimagined holiday standards, is called ‘Winter Songs Vol. 2’ just released on the Cellar Music Group label. 

We have chosen to showcase the project as one of the standouts from a long list of holiday recordings produced every year at this time. The album features an impressive gathering of Varner collaborators, including GRAMMY- winning producer Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, pianist Luther Allison, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, and an outstanding vocal trio The Sunhouse Singers, featuring June Cavlan, Kate Kortum, and Joie Bianco. 

My holiday gift to you is a conversation with this amazing and talented artist about the development of her holiday recording, as well as a little bit about the backstory of a vocalist and a name you’re going to want to remember.

11/12/2025

Sunday, Dec 17, as we post Part 2 of ATJ Holiday Highlights.
April Varner is a rising jazz vocalist and the 2023 winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Her full-length Christmas album, featuring unique and reimagined holiday standards, is called ‘Winter Songs Vol. 2’ just released on the Cellar Music Group label. 
We have chosen to showcase the project as one of the standouts from a long list of holiday recordings produced every year at this time. The album features an impressive gathering of Varner collaborators, including GRAMMY- winning producer Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, pianist Luther Allison, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, and an outstanding vocal trio The Sunhouse Singers, featuring June Cavlan, Kate Kortum, and Joie Bianco. 
My holiday gift to you is a conversation with this amazing and talented artist about the development of her holiday recording, as well as a little bit about the backstory of a vocalist and a name you’re going to want to remember.

07/12/2025

is posted. All top platforms worldwide and online at All That’s Jazz.

Listen here: https://www.allthatsjazz.net/podcast-1/episode/54869cc0/season-6-episode-16-the-nutcracker-remix

CINCINNATI CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ORCHESTRA (CCJO) is one of the Midwest’s most prominent jazz bands. Founded in 2013 by University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, the CCJO is a 17-piece not-for-profit ensemble dedicated to performing,preserving and teaching jazz as a living art form. After three holiday season performances of their take on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, CCJO has released THE NUTCRACKER REMIX – a 12-track album featuring nine reimagined tracks from the ballet and three bonus Christmas-themed tracks sung by powerhouse jazz singer MANDY GAINES.

CCJO’s current artistic director Eric Lechliter and Doug Lillibridge the CCJO board president were not at all intimidated, and have now created their own jazzy take on the Nutcracker. We talk with them about how this all came about.

06/12/2025

Sunday, December 7, posting 8am GMT on all top platforms.

The Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra also known as CCJO is one of the Midwest’s most prominent jazz bands. Founded in 2013, CCJO is currently a 17-piece not-for-profit ensemble dedicated to performing, preserving and teaching jazz as a living art form. More than a decade ago, Rob Parton – the former artistic director of the CCJO – floated the idea of creating a new jazz version of “Nutcracker.”  
One might ask why, when in 1960 a couple of jazz giants named Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn created their own jazz version of the work called “The Nutcracker Suite,”which became an iconic and beloved holiday jazz standard.  

Moving to the present day, along comes the dynamic duo of CCJO’s current artistic director Eric Lechliter and Doug Lillibridge the CCJO board president who were not at all intimidated, and have now created their own jazzy take on the Nutcracker called the “Nutcracker Remix”.   This recording is a 12-track album featuring nine reimagined tracks from the Tchaikovsky ballet and three bonus Christmas-themed tracks sung by powerhouse jazz singer Mandy Gaines. 

Eric and Doug have “thrown down the gauntlet” to establish CCJO’s place as a standard-bearer for holiday recordings. Here is our conversation, along with snippets of what we are sure will become a holiday classic.

04/12/2025

posting 8am GMT Sunday, December 7. All top platforms worldwide and at all that’s jazz.net

19/11/2025

Ben Wolfe Trio feat Joel Ross & Aaron Kimmel
Wednesday, November 19
7:00 & 9:30 PM
bluesalley.com for tickets 

19/11/2025

19/11/2025

CINDY BLACKMAN SANTANA: Today I’m wishing a very happy birthday to Cindy Blackman Santana, a talented drummer and another friend/classmate from Berklee College of Music back in the day. It’s been amazing to watch her career blossom between then and now, from a fellow college student to a professional at the top of her field and an icon for women in jazz. Wishing you all the best for the year ahead, Cindy.

19/11/2025

TONIGHT: Don't miss your chance to hear from some of Detroit's most promising young jazz talents in this Next Generation edition of JazzChat Live! DJF president and artistic director Chris Collins will be talking at 7 p.m. to Jacob Hart 🎹, Allen Dennard 🎺, Kahlil Childs 🎷and Trevor Lamb 🎻.

This is a FREE virtual discussion, register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sjOwsDs5SACqdHROORVPiA?fbclid=IwY2xjawOKtEZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFOWWxPTW5aTWZFbDlMVk9Zc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmYGxXSWiw_fR2RQiE7K-IA-16OtuyJ8MCNwpLr6y0DaqEN4yxWqFBn_2pQf_aem_hpgCWB_7t1RPllRucurnQQ #/registration

19/11/2025

17/11/2025

See you on the flip side.