Articles by Lawrence Peryer
Miho Hazama: The Conductor Who Leads With Love
by Lawrence Peryer
Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on composer and chief conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band, Miho Hazama. Miho grew up inside the Yamaha music education system in her native Japan. She moved to New York to study jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music under Jim McNeely and has spent her career as one of the most distinctive voices in large-ensemble writing. Her work includes her own chamber jazz group m_unit, conducting posts with the ...
Continue ReadingCelebrating Duke Ellington's Late-Period Creative Music On His 127th Birthday And More
by Lawrence Peryer
This week's Rotations marks the 127th birth anniversary of Duke Ellington with a deep dive into the final fifteen years of his career. Those were the years of surprising, searching work that tends to get overlooked in favor of the canonical recordings. Ellington appears in four different contexts: sacred, suite, duo, and globe-spanning large ensemble. Close your eyes and listen without the name attached.Opening and closing sets from a variety of contemporary artists frame the Ellington material.
Continue ReadingTomeka Reid: The Low Seat, The Long Haul, And 'Dance! Skip! Hop!'
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, The Tonearm's needle drops on cellist and composer Tomeka Reid. Tomeka Reid has spent the last decade building one of the most distinctive voices in creative music. The New York Times called her a “New Jazz Power Source." She's a MacArthur Fellow, a founder of the Chicago Jazz String Summit, and a key collaborator with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, and Craig Taborn, among many others. Her quartet with guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and ...
Continue ReadingElla Feingold, Persian Empire, Closed City, The Westerlies, Antoni Wojnar and more
by Lawrence Peryer
This episode features four sets of music covering new releases and archival recordings in jazz, electronic, ambient, and points in between. Playlist Lawrence Peryer [mic break] 00:00 Ella Feingold “Ellalude" from Tell A Beautiful Lie With Sound (Ella Bella Records) 00:34 Persian Empire “the local time is always now" from the local time is always now--Single (Prrrrrrr Records) 01:25 Closed City “City" from Closed City (Watch That Ends The Night Records) 02:55 The Westerlies “Why? (July 7, 2020)" ...
Continue ReadingBen Wendel: Assembling The Mallet Avengers
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, The Tonearm's needle drops on saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel.Ben is a Grammy-nominated saxophonist, composer, and co-founder of Kneebody, with a discography that covers post-bop, chamber jazz, and electronic music. He's worked with Bill Frisell, Tigran Hamasyan, Terence Blanchard and yes, Prince.His album BaRcoDe (Edition Records, 2026) is built around a concept that's hard to pull off: four of the most in-demand vibraphonists working today--Joel Ross, Simon Moullier, Patricia Brennan, and Juan Diego Villalobos--surrounding one ...
Continue ReadingJulianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore: Like Tears In Rain
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore. Julianna is a composer, vocalist, and producer whose music is built almost entirely from layered, looped human voices. Mary is a harpist who has spent years pushing that instrument into a vast, exploratory realm. In January 2025, the two flew to jny: Paris just days after the jny: Los Angeles wildfires tore through their community. There, they spent nine days recording with instruments pulled ...
Continue ReadingBellbird: Montreal's Jazz Collective Heeds The Call
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on the jny: Montreal jazz collective Bellbird.Bellbird formed during pandemic park jams and has since become one of the more compelling voices in Canada's avant-garde jazz scene. The quartet consists of Claire Devlinon tenor sax, Allison Burik on alto sax and bass clarinet, Eli Davidovici on bass, and Mili Hong on drums. No guitar, no piano, just three mostly single-note instruments and a drum kit, which turns out to be more than ...
Continue ReadingSam Wenc: The Experimental Language Of The Pedal Steel Guitar
by Lawrence Peryer
Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on guitarist and composer Sam Wenc. Wenc is a jny: Philadelphia-based artist who has spent nearly a decade building one of the more distinctive bodies of work in American experimental music, mostly under the name Post Moves. Now he's released his first album under his own name. It's called Language at an Angle (Lobby Art Editions, 2026). The record grew out of a year of live performances--from Philadelphia to Japan--and ...
Continue ReadingZeena Parkins: Invention, Loss, And The Living Harp
by Lawrence Peryer
Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Zeena Parkins, composer, improviser, and one of the most singular forces in experimental music.Zeena has spent four decades dismantling what the harp can do: through electronics, object preparations, and a series of custom electric instruments she built herself, she's turned a concert hall fixture into something alive and unpredictable.Her collaborators range from Björk to John Zorn to Pauline Oliveros. Last year, she released two records paying tribute to her ...
Continue ReadingMichael Graves: The Patient Philosophy Of Audio Restoration
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Michael Graves, a five-time Grammy-winning mastering engineer and the founder of Osiris Studio in jny: Los Angeles. Michael's work is restoration as archaeology--pulling performances off deteriorating tapes, damaged acetates, and obsolete formats, then deciding how much intervention is too much. He's done this for recordings by Hank Williams, Aretha Franklin, Stax Records songwriters, and field recordings from Cambodia, Sudan, and Mississippi. His most recent Grammy came in 2024 for Written in ...
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