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Sal La Rocca
Sal La Rocca SLR5 - Consenso (2025) " Consenso, the new quintet led by Sal La Rocca, celebrates listening, respect, and the art of creating together. Its name — gentle yet powerful — captures the spirit of a group united by the joy of making music as one. Alongside the double bassist, Igor Gehenot, Phil Abraham, Steven Delannoye, and Umberto Odone blend their unique voices in perfect harmony. The result is music that feels alive and sunlit, full of warmth and freedom. Between groove, lyricism, and Caribbean flashes, the band finds a rare balance. Consenso is the shared breath of a generous, deeply human jazz." sallarocca.com


Links: Website, Vimeo, Facebook, YouTube Channel, and DC Bebop page.

MUSIC CD ARCHIVE: ONECD

Sarah Hanahan
Sarah Hanahan - Among Giants (2025)  "In the jazz world, there are names of young artists who are increasingly making themselves heard, such as Sarah Hanahan, who presents this new album, *Among Giants*. This album, in many ways, reminds me of certain works by Erik Satie, no doubt because of her way of bouncing silences within her compositions to better introduce an instrument. Here, in the form of a quartet, she is accompanied by the excellent musicians Marc Cary (piano), Nat Reeves (double bass), and Jeff “Tain” Watts (drums). Working with Reeves, Watts, and Cary was a natural choice for Hanahan, who describes the rehearsals leading up to the album as “incredibly fun and easy.” It’s easy to understand why: Reeves and Watts have been playing together for over thirty years and have revolutionized the bass-drum connection. And Marc Cary, with his many years with Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln, has developed one of the most dynamic concepts of accompanying and supporting a soloist. “As we worked all four together to learn my pieces and play standards, each person contributed musical ideas that ended up shaping each track as you hear it on the album. Everyone brought their unique individual touches while deeply listening to each other and playing as one, that’s what truly makes this album special,” she describes."

Links:   Website, The World of Sax, Jazz at Lincoln Center, YouTube.

MUSIC CD ARCHIVE: DOUBLECD

Ledisi Ledisi - For Dinah (2025)  "From the very first track it is clear that this is no ordinary project. Produced by the formidable Christian McBride, himself one of the most respected bassists and composers of his generation—alongside Ledisi, For Dinah stands apart as an album that marries virtuosity with intention. It is conceived less as a retrospective than as a living conversation across time: Ledisi speaking directly to Dinah Washington, the legendary “Queen of the Blues,” who reigned in mid-century America and yet remains curiously under-recognized outside the circles of jazz aficionados."

Links:   Website, Wikipedia, Discography, YouTube.

Ledisi - The Crown (2025)  "Ledisi’s milestone twelfth studio release, The Crown, feels less like a follow-up to last year’s Good Life and more like a coronation. Announced in the afterglow of her spirited “Lift Every Voice and Sing” rendition at Super Bowl LIX, the project takes its title from a phrase she kept repeating to friends after that performance: “Remember who you are; fix your crown.” From the outset, Ledisi framed the record as an ode to lineage and self-sovereignty, pointing to the jazz tutelage of her New Orleans upbringing and the gospel discipline that shaped her vocal attack. She cut most of the album in 2024, splitting time between a warm-sounding Los Angeles room run by longtime collaborator Rex Rideout and Joc Musiq’s New Orleans compound, where horns and Hammond organs were tracked live to honor Crescent City traditions. "


Music Arts session - Concert, Station, PBS, NPR and other live mini concert sessions and interviews.

Hermanos Gutiérrez: Tiny Desk Concert
"Hermanos Gutiérrez is a Latin instrumental band formed in 2015 in Zürich by Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers Alejandro Gutiérrez and Estevan Gutiérrez. The US label Easy Eye Sound has released the band's fifth album El Bueno y el Malo in 2022, and their sixth album Sonido Cósmico in 2024"

Website, Discography, YouTube

BOOK RACK: FEATURED BOOK

John le Carré - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), "The story follows Alec Leamas, a British spy nearing the end of his career, as he is tasked with an elaborate deception to bring down a high-ranking East German intelligence officer. Leamas must convincingly defect and become a disillusioned double agent, sacrificing his reputation and even enduring a prison sentence to establish his cover. As the intricate plot unfolds, with its multiple twists and turns, Leamas finds himself caught in a complex web of deception orchestrated by his own side, questioning the very loyalties and ideologies he has devoted his life to."   henrykisor.com and Kobo Books

BOOK RACK: FEATURED SERIES

Cassandra Clare - The Infernal Devices Trilogy "A century before the events of Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy, another everyday heroine gets entangled with demon-slaying Shadowhunters. Sixteen-year-old orphaned Tessa comes to London to join her brother but is imprisoned by the grotesque Dark Sisters. The sisters train the unwilling Tessa in previously unknown shapeshifter abilities, preparing her to be a pawn in some diabolical plan. A timely rescue brings Tessa to the Institute, where a group of misfit Shadowhunters struggles to fight evil. Though details differ, the general flavor of Tessa’s new family will be enjoyably familiar to the earlier trilogy’s fans; the most important is Tessa’s rescuer Will, the gorgeous, sharp-tongued teenager with a mysterious past and a smile like “Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.” The lush, melodramatic urban fantasy setting of the Shadowhunter world morphs seamlessly into a steampunk Victorian past, and this new series provides the setup for what will surely be a climactic battle against hordes of demonically powered brass clockworks. The tale drags in places, but this crowdpleaser’s tension-filled conclusion ratchets toward a new set of mysteries. (Steampunk. 13-15)" ~ kirkusreviews.com Books: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies. KOBO Books

MOVIES: FEATURED MOVIE

The Princess Bride (1987)

"The moment the princess is taken away by agents of the evil Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), “The Princess Bride” reveals itself as a sly parody of sword and sorcery movies, a film that somehow manages to exist on two levels at once: While younger viewers will sit spellbound at the thrilling events on the screen, adults, I think, will be laughing a lot. In its own peculiar way, “The Princess Bride” resembles “This Is Spinal Tap,” an earlier film by the same director, Rob Reiner. Both films are funny not only because they contain comedy, but because Reiner does justice to the underlying form of his story. “Spinal Tap” looked and felt like a rock documentary – and then it was funny. “The Princess Bride” looks and feels like “Legend” or any of those other quasi-heroic epic fantasies – and then it goes for the laughs."    RogerEbert.com  

Link: The Princess Bride (1987) - Buy/Rent Watch online

CUISINE: FEATURED RESTAURANT

HASAKI - "Hasaki [East Village]is my number one, go-to choice of sushi in NYC, aside from [my restaurant] Daigo, because of the authentic and casual ambiance, as well as the great variety of fresh fish,” says Ishikura. He usually orders omakase at the sushi bar, which starts at $60 for nine chef’s choice pieces of sushi and a classic roll.
Hasaki has been serving tastes of Japan via authentic sushi and sashimi since 1984. Neither are available à la carte, but a $30 eight piece sushi meal with a roll, and the $33 Tekka Don (tuna sashimi over rice) keep the place on the affordable side."  

Links: Hasaki Website

*The most recent featured musicians and play lists from the five Music listings on DC Bebop.   A musician listed on a DC Bebop page with an intro, is featured for 10 days with one of their songs.  Included in the play list are songs by nine other musicians in a table on DC Bebop. The songs are linked to a page (MySpace, Reverbnation, YouTube or where ever the song can be heard). The play list is not a top 10 list. It features songs I liked and think perhaps others might appreciate the music as well.

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