Kelly Reichardt‘s new movie, “First Cow”, my favorite in this year’s competition so far, is a Western told in a new fashion. Oregon, early 19th century, trappers are flooding the continent and the way she describes the development of the friendship of Cookie (brilliantly played by John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee), is like a…
Documentary directors Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez have created a 70-minute piece of collecting parts of the original Berlin Wall, put up all over the United States. Many of them can be found in museums, some of them in parks and gated communities, a handful of them were auctioned off by private individuals for their…
There is this special scene in Philippe Falardeau‘s “My Salinger Year”, which opened the 70th Berlinale last night, where literary agent Margaret (played by the hilariously witty Sigourney Weaver) shows her level-headed, almost tender side instead of her otherwise cold and rigorous manner. It’s where she tells aspiring writer Joanna (Margaret Qualley in her next…
It would have been Nancy Wilson‘s 83rd birthday today and I thought I’d use the opportunity and feature another album in our new category of albums that you won’t find on Spotify. “Take My Love” was released in 1980 and Nancy’s commercial success had been on the low side after her incredible streak in the…
Happy 80th birthday to the one and only Smokey Robinson. We’re digging deep into our vinyl collection and here are our current Smokey favorites, album by album: “Smokey” (1973): “Holly”“Pure Smokey” (1974): “I Am I Am”“A Quiet Storm” (1975): “Quiet Storm”“Smokey’s Family Robinson” (1976): “Castles Made Of Sand”“Deep In My Soul” (1977): “It’s Been A…
The Atlanta-based artist with a voice of a young Nina Simone is coming to Europe for a short, 8-city tour. Her debut album “To Myself” was released last August on the indie Human Re Sources label and is also available on limited edition vinyl. The power and the beauty of tracks like the album’s opener…
It would have been Leon’s 80th birthday today. He was working on an album before his health deteriorated and “Rainbow Deux”, only available on double-vinyl, with Leon’s own watercolor art on the cover, came out in September of last year. Six of the songs, recorded in 2012 and 2013, were already issued on a Japanese-only…
I recently came across the name of Luca Manning through a tweet by UK vocalist Ian Shaw. I thought if Ian recommends someone, he or she must be worth checking out. So I contacted Luca and received his debut album which came out late last year. And guess what? It is full of surprises. The…
There is something majestic about piano trios, even more so when the leader is an expert on restraint and finesse. I’ve seen Aaron Diehl a lot of times with singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, refining and reinterpreting the Great American Songbook and Salvant originals and this, “The Vagabond”, has seven of his own compositions, one by…
After one solo album in 1983, Ben Watt joined Tracey Thorn to go on a successful career with her under the name Everything But The Girl. After their split, he started to create some of the most fantastic deep house cuts as a DJ and producer with his Lazy Dog series, both a club night…