16.“Today” – Relyae Brooklyn based artist Relyae, known for his “blissful melodies, uplifting grooves and addictive atmospheres”, released his utterly mellow “Unknown” EP in late September. The five tracks all ooze with a perfect neo-soul/funk/r&b blend. Relyae released his first single back in 2018 with “Be Sad” and there was also a brilliant 7-song album…
18.“Bloom” – Natty Reeves/Jackson MathodThe second track in our list by Natty Reeves came out in early June as a preview to his wonderful “Mist Over Water” EP. The soulful “Bloom” with its bossa-ish sound has some distinctive rhythmic percussion work weaved together with a gentle guitar and some very heartwarming horns, courtesy of Jackson…
19. “Live For You” – Thee Sacred Souls Thee Sacred Souls, a trio from San Diego cleverly and fascinatingly mixing old school Soul of the 60s with the more sophisticated sounds of the early 70s, released their debut album in 2022. To much critical acclaim and praise. In early October, Josh Lane, Sal Samano, and…
20.“Everlasting” – Jody Watley The year started out on a mellow, groovy note with Jody Watley‘s “Everlasting”. Her genuine and encouraging lyrics are supported by a fancy remix from Alex Di Ciò. “When I was a girl, I believed in fairytales and fantasies/As I got older, I realized nothing is ever easy/I found that sometimes…
21.“Working It Out” – Myles Sanko Soul and jazz singer Myles Sanko, born in Accra, delivered several singles from his new and excellent album “Let It Unfold”, starting in early February all the way through the year until the release of his LP in early October. All of them very personal, deep, and intense. And…
We’ve recently been asked by several of our music industry peers to come up with a list of our Top Songs of the Year. Our dear friend and regular reader Marcus came up with the idea to post them day by day, one song each day. Starting with Number 25 on December 1st and thus,…
He’s on a short tour through the UK and the Netherlands and after a stop at Groningen’s Spot on Saturday, singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Jarrod Lawson was playing LantarenVenster in Rotterdam on Sunday night. Backed by a superb rhythm section which he met in the UK a few days prior to this performance, and a…
This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival is my first. I always wanted to go since there is so much to be liked about this festival. First of all, obviously, the programming. This year is another one with an extremely diverse, versatile and eclectic array of artists too numerous to mention here. But what is also…
The sixth edition of this year’s Rockit Festival, located at Groningen’s SPOT, ended on Saturday night with a rousing, highly entertaining, and crazy set by MonoNeon. The bassist, whose real name is Dywane Thomas Jr. and who is known for his hilariously extravagant costumes, also released a pretty spacy Moog EP earlier this year called…
There are only a handful of pianists with such a virtuosic approach and diverse dynamics like Fred Hersch. Which he proved again last night at Spot in Groningen, the vibrant live venue in the heart of this equally bubbling city which doesn’t showcase its virtues on or above the surface, but rather more slightly under…