Born in New York, raised in Croatia, singer Thana Alexa delivers her debut album “Ode To Heroes”. Thana, who took voice lessons at the Rock Academy of Zagreb and later enrolled at the New School in New York, is paying tribute here to her influences, by either covering standards or by writing her own, distinguished…
Jill Scott, Xavier Naidoo, David McAlmont and Max Mutzke on one album? German trumpet player Nils Wülker makes it happen. The 37 year old musician is probably best known for his music for the pretty popular “Space Night” in German TV and back in 2002, he was the very first German jazz artist on the…
Gefion, the 10:33 minute title track of the new ECM album by Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, slowly builds into a monumental, but silent and sometimes sinister piece, with transcendental qualities to it. The track is named after a goddess who is associated with prophecy. The track “Copenhagen”, Bro’s native city, also comes along as a…
The Louis Armstrong Museum in New York is among the many participants worldwide to celebrate the International Jazz Day (see report on these pages) on April 30th. The Museum, located in Queens, is showing “Louis Armstrong Live in Concert, East Berlin 1965″. Here’s what the museum’s homepage writes about the forthcoming event: “This concert was…
Lew Soloff, one of the busiest Jazz trumpet musicians, died unexpectedly yesterday after an apparent heart attack. He just turned 71 in February. It seems that he is on every second Jazz or Jazz-related LP from the 70s and beyond – his style always crisp and on the mark, with fiery solos and brimming high-notes,…
Just in time for the first real spring weekend with lots of sun and temperatures in the lower 60s here in Berlin, the folks at Real Side Records, the soul team that was founded in 2002, have come up with the third installment of their wonderful “Soul On The Real Side” Collection, a 20-track album…
The 22nd edition of this Festival which once hosted a rare German appearance of Rosemary Clooney, takes place this year from July 3rd to 12th in various locations throughout the city. The Mercedes-Benz Museum has Caro Emerald and Mario Biondi as opening acts on July 4th. Also appearing there will be Marcus Miller and Joshua…
Back in November, singer Sachal Vasandani premiered tracks from his new album “Slow Motion Miracles” in Berlin (see report on these pages). And now, his album is finally released. It was produced by Michael Leonhart, who also appears as recording engineer and mixer and is responsible for the overall programming including guitars, brass, keys, synths,…
The Munich-born saxophonist Carolyn Breuer had private lessons with Branford Marsalis and George Coleman in New York and is now releasing her piano-less new album on her own NotNowMom! Records. She starts her album with her verison of Jimi Hendrix‘ “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)” changing the Electric to Acoustic. It features a…
George Colligan, the pianist who has worked with everyone from Phil Woods to Cassandra Wilson, from Nicholas Payton to Vanessa Rubin, or from Gary Bartz to Don Byron, also plays trumpet, organ, and drums. And his latest album “Risky Notion” is where you can hear him solely playing the latter. With his group, the Theoretical…