Before listening to a single note of Suris’ new album, “Pertinax”, I spent a few minutes just looking at the word. Pertinax. It has the distinct ring of a Stoic philosopher’s last defiant utterance or maybe a type of beetle known for its unusually stubborn shell. What a curious flag to fly for a collection of songs in an age of fleeting distraction. But...

Tomasz Kowalczyk and Benita Rose have delivered something beautifully startling with their collaborative album, "Benita Rose Plays Tomasz Kowalczyk". It takes a staggering amount of vulnerability to hand the literal blueprint of your psyche to another human being. Yet, here we have Kowalczyk, a prolific Polish composer, trusting the world-renowned American concert pianist Rose to excavate his mind and translate his wordless, heavily emotional...