Rachel Z & WBGO Live @ J&R

Rhonda Hamilton begins a Midday Jazz remote at 10:00am from J&R Music World, Jazz Store on the 2nd floor, 23 Park Row, New York, NY. Rachel Z takes the stage at 12:30pm. If you’re free and can get downtown, you should not miss this show. Those out of the area should tune in to Jazz88 hear what musical surprises Rachel has for us as she dips into her new CD, The Department of Good and Evil.

As WBGO reports, Jazz pianist Rachel Z is clearly something fresh in jazz. She has dedicated CDs to Joni Mitchell, has new jazz versions of songs by Death Cab for Cutie, The Church, The Yayas and so many more current groups. “She has this ability,” says WBGO Music Director Gary Walker, “to turn all this music inside out and show that good music is good music, period.”

Though Rachel has toured with a full range of great performers from Wayne Shorter to Peter Gabriel, her jazz trio has been tight and together for quite some time. “The duality of good and evil is becoming more and more prevalent these days,” says Z. Of her band, also called The Department of Good And Evil features Rachel Z on piano and vocals, Bobby Rae on drums, Maeve Royce on acoustic bass, Tony Levin on electric bass and Chapman stick, and Eric Naslund on trumpet, Rachel says “We are trying to unify at least the world we control, which is the jazz world. So our band is biracial, and we have men and women in it, and we’re paying strict attention to the old jazz tradition but also trying to innovate with new jazz ideas; in the tradition of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Elivn Jones.”

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