This year’s North Sea Jazz Festival, scheduled for the weekend of July 7th-9th, has announced the first round of artists coming over to Rotterdam. Among the acts of the first day, July 7th, are the Kenny Barron Quartet, Bill Frisell FOUR with Gerald Clayton, Jonathan Blake and Greg Tardy, Terri Lyne Carrington with her New…
Cécile McLorin Salvant wil release her next Nonsesuch Records album “Mélusine” on March 24th. It’s a mixture of five original songs and nine pieces sung in French, Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. Some of the songs date back to the 12th century. “Mélusine” tells the story of a woman who turns into a half-snake each…
Happy Birthday to The Songstress. Late last year, her tour dates were announced. She will be joined on tour by Babyface. Earlier this year, she released a short clip on Twitter with a snippet of new music, supposed to come out later this year. The last time I saw her was in 2019 at North…
Carol Sloane, one of the greatest singers of classic songs, has sailed on. She suffered a stroke about two years ago and lived in a senior care center in Stoneham, Massachusetts, where she passed away on Monday. Her timbre, phrasing, and overall style was one of a kind. I’m so glad that I could see…
“Killing Me Softly With His Song”, Roberta Flack‘s smash hit soul single, written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, turns 50 this year. Atlantic Records, her label since her debut in 1969, turns 75 this year. To celebrate, they have both come up with a remix of the song, which spent five weeks at number…
Sámi-Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette was the first artist to release a double debut album on ECM Records. Back in 2015 when “Mette Henriette” came out, she worked with her trio plus brass and string section and bandoneon. She is now back with “Drifting”, which finds her again with pianist Johan Lindvall and Judith…
They have performed together for more than twenty years and finally team up now for a record on the briliant Edition Records from the UK. Both have individually released their latest records on Edition, too: Gretchen with “Flor” in 2021, and Lionel with his Herbie Hancock solo tribute “HH” in 2020, with its 6-track remix…
Brooklyn-based fusion band Snarky Puppy is led by bassist, composer, and producer Michael League. It’s a collective of almost 40 musicians, with pianist, keyboardist and composer Bill Laurance being one of them. Michael League has recently moved to Spain where this duo album was recorded. He’s playing fretless acoustic guitar bass, fretless baritone electric guitar,…
Four years after her last album “Kicks”, singer Rickie Lee Jones will release “Pieces Of Treasure”, an album of ten standards, produced by Russ Titelman, who was the producer of her first two albums in 1979 and 1981. Accompanying her on the new album, which will be released on April 28th, are Russell Malone on…
Its José’s 45th birthday today and he’s giving us a new album as a present. José’s 7-track tribute to the great Erykah Badu just came out today on his own Rainbow Blonde label and features BIGYUKI on piano, keys, and synths, Ben Williams on bass, Jharis Yokley on drums, Ebban Dorsey on alto sax, and…