He is best known as a songwriter for timeless songs by The Chi-Lites like “Oh Girl” or “Have You Seen Her” or the successful “Soulful Strut” for Young-Holt Unlimited which later became a hit for his wife Barbara Acklin as “Am I The Same Girl”. Eugene Record left The Chi-Lites in 1976 to record three…
She got all dressed up yesterday for her birthday celebration at one of Berlin’s Christmas markets. She also had an extra sausage and a slice of meat from an organic corn chicken. Earlier that day, she met a lot of her friends while she went for an extensive walk.
“Love Has Come Around”, the Donald Byrd classic from the trumpeter’s Isaac Hayes-produced “Love Byrd” album from 1981, has finally received the cover treatment. It is a sacred song for me so I was a bit hesitant before I listened to it, but the song is in good hands: it has been recorded by the…
And just when you thought that everyone has recorded a Xmas album by now, here come Earth, Wind & Fire with their “Holiday” CD which is a nod to their 70s heyday disco/soul sound. You can hear “Happy Feelin’s” again as “Happy Seasons”. One of their biggest hits, “September”, becomes “December”. Yes you might want…
It has now become an annual tradition, and a nice and lovely one indeed, to check in at Kreuzberg’s Passionskirche shortly before Christmas when Nils Landgren and his friends take the stage to celebrate the season. Four Christmas albums have now been released, the latest came out this year and features exactly the same personnel…
Stephen Holden of the New York Times writes today in his review of the Wednesday evening show at Birdland: “Singing “The Face I Love,” “My Nightingale,” “Look Who’s Mine” and “If You Went Away,” Ms. Kent embodied the essence of saudade as persuasively as any of her Brazilian idols.” You can read more about Stacey’s…
Many things have been said about John Coltrane‘s “A Love Supreme”, the landmark album which has sold 500.000 copies and which consists of a four-piece suite. The spiritual, enlightening, meditative masterpiece was recorded on December 9th, 1964 and features McCoy Tyner on piano (who turns 76 today), Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on…
I think it is the perfect time now to think about June and July. That’s when one of the most popular Jazz festivals on the planet is taking place in Montreal. The Festival International De Jazz De Montreal runs from June 26th to July 5th. And the first artists have just been announced. Also, tickets…
I never quiet understood why Donald Byrd was criticized when he recorded his infamous albums in 1981 and 1982 which were produced by Isaac Hayes. Sell-out was the quote of the day and yet, his 1981 album “Love Byrd” for me belongs to my all-time favorite top ten albums. The album starts with an eight-minute…
He would have been 89 years old today. Jimmy Smith, one of the most important and influential organists ever, was all over the annual Downbeat Readers Poll in December 1962. Here’s what Ira Gitler wrote in the liner notes of this classic recording from April 25, 1960, the same session that also gave us Kenny…