{"id":8649,"date":"2012-02-07T21:54:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T03:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=8649"},"modified":"2012-02-09T11:29:03","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T17:29:03","slug":"vince-mendoza-nights-on-earth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2012\/02\/07\/vince-mendoza-nights-on-earth-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Vince Mendoza: Nights on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Mendoza Stays True to Himself<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"More...\" src=\"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><!--more--><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s been a long time coming, but finally, we have another album of all-original Vince Mendoza compositions.\u00a0 I could not have been happier to see\u00a0<em>Nights on Earth<\/em>\u00a0in the mail at the station over winter break.\u00a0 Mendoza is one the most in-demand arrangers and composers in the world.\u00a0 He won two Grammys for his work with Joni Mitchell on\u00a0<em>Both Sides Now<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Travelogue<\/em>. He has also worked with Bjork, Elvis Costello, and Sting. Oh, and he\u2019s also the conductor of the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands. Not too shabby.<\/p>\n<p>True to its title,\u00a0<em>Nights on Earth<\/em>\u00a0draws from Mendoza\u2019s favorite styles from all over the world, including flamenco, Cuban, Malian, and Italian.\u00a0 Despite the seemingly random assortment of influences, the music sounds distinctly like Vince Mendoza.\u00a0 He wrote each song with specific musicians in mind to let them be themselves.\u00a0 One of my favorite tracks, \u201cShekere,\u201d features Tom Diakite, singing in his native language from Mali.\u00a0 Diakite also plays the kora, a Malian stringed instrument that sounds somewhere between a banjo and a harp, which only plays into Mendoza\u2019s aim to blend styles across oceans.<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza draws from his jazz roots too.\u00a0 \u201cGracias\u201d combines the legendary guitarist John Scofield and organist Larry Goldings with Afro-Cuban bat\u00e1 talking drums, and out comes a soulful meditation.\u00a0 \u201cPoem of the Moon,\u201d a dark, gradually building dialogue between guitarist John Abercrombie and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire showcases Mendoza\u2019s uncanny ability to layer textures.<\/p>\n<p>Other notable jazz artists on this album include bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and pianist Kenny Werner.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re into music heavy on world influences, complex large ensemble compositions, or modern jazz, you can\u2019t go wrong with\u00a0<em>Nights on Earth<\/em>.\u00a0 Hopefully Mendoza can find some time in his psychotic schedule to give us another album of originals sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>As always, get your jazz fix every weekday morning from 6 to 9am, and hear the best in local jazz every Tuesday night at 10pm.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Lucas Homer on twitter @KCJazzConnxn<\/p>\n<p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong>\u00a0October 30th, 2011<\/p>\n<p><strong>by lucas homer<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>tune in to kc jazz connection every tuesday night from 10 to 11 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mendoza Stays True to Himself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":8683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[641,9,150],"class_list":["post-8649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-jazz","tag-jazz-in-the-morning","tag-lucas-homer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/nights-on-earth1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}