Browsing Tag

Jazz Piano

Take a Ride Through ‘Cardinal Drive’ with Tony Marino’s Piano Jazz Score

Posted on 14 January 2023

South Philly Latin Jazz musician and composer Tony Marino has been leading world-renowned jazz ensembles and producing original scores since 1975. His accoladed career that has placed swathes of scintillatingly sublime LPs in his discography is now home to his latest album, Original Piano Pieces.

The standout single, Cardinal Drive, is a cinematically rich composition that sets a debonair tone throughout the enlivening score, which simultaneously emanates a sense of melodic ease as Marino works through his globally respected signature flair across the ivories.

With reverence for a myriad of genres from across the world, the instrumental piece refuses to fit in a monocultural mould as Marino seamlessly shifts through a flurry of time and key signatures. In a frantically paced world, Original Piano Pieces flows with a tempo that will efficaciously compose the soul.

Listen to Cardinal Drive via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

K-Magic gets ‘Mythic’ with Jazzy new single.

Posted on 21 April 2021

How’d you like THEM Jazz apples, then, huh? Well, so much so that we’re looking to buy the whole damn bushel of ‘em, that’s how much. Thanks to Kevin Bernstein, a 29 year old pianist, based in Brooklyn, NYC who, having lent his keyboard skills backing a variety of singers, bands, and comedians alongside his work with the Alison Shearer Band, has now launched his own instrumental solo project, K-Magic.

And what a project it is, too. Oh, yeah; about those apples. Well, that’s exactly what we have here – a whole barrel of jazzy trills, harmonies, and counterpoints. It’s fun, it bounces along, it sounds a little like the theme tune to one of those slightly more highbrow US sitcoms like Frasier or Will and Grace, or maybe the thing the band would improvise on Whose Line Is It Anyway. That’s not a bad thing, by the way – it’s an excellent musical piece, stop-starty at times, moving through two or three different movements but consistently returning to a repeating central motif, the ideal accompaniment to dinner and cocktails, and fine conversation; it’s left us wanting more, and that’s always got to be a good thing.

Check out K-Magic on Instagram and Facebook. Listen to ‘Mythic’ on Spotify.

Review by Alex Holmes