Australian soul singer Kylie Auldist will release her sixth album “Hybrid” this Friday. It’s her first release since the 2020 LP “This Is What Happiness Looks Like” and it finds her, once again, in funky, soulful boogie mode with lots of 80s-sounding synths, like on the lengthy opener “One Time Offer” which also has some…
Chilean jazz saxophonist and songwriter Melissa Aldana releases her third album for Blue Note Records this Friday. After “12 Stars” (2022), which featured Lage Lund on guitar, Sulllivan Fortner on piano and keys, Pablo Menares on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums, and “Echoes Of The Inner Prophet” (2024) with Lage Lund, Fabian Almazan on…
German jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann just released her 10th album for the prestigious ECM label. Called “While I Was Away”, she more or less returns to earlier works on ACT Music where she recorded several albums with vocalists. On her most recent effort, there are three very distinct vocalists, each representing a certain mood and…
Guitarist Julian Lage releases his fifth album for Blue Note Records, “Scenes From Above”, on January 23rd. After “Squint” (2021) with Jorge Roeder and Dave King, “Room With A View” (2022) with additional guitar from Bill Frisell, his solo album “The Layers” (2023), and “Speak To Me” (2024) with an extended band that featured Kris…
Flashback to 1982. When producers, writers, arrangers, and multi-instrumentalists Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti started their solid partnership, writing songs for dozens of MPB artists during that era, they also received pretty critical reviews accusing them of turning the classic MPB sounds into lame and boring pop. Fast forward over 40 years, and all of…
Pianist Aaron Parks, who released his latest Blue Note Records album “By All Means” at the beginning of November, played a short set on Thursday afternoon at the Jazz Social, the pop up venue which offers live performances, interviews, live radio, a record shop, and more during this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. The record…
Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sam Wills had his first headline show last night at Kreuzberg’s Privatclub. Sam, who just recently released his second album called “Speak”, nonchalantly walked on stage, dressed in a plain plaid shirt and black jeans, opened his set with the first tune off that album. After the brief “Hallway”, he breezed…
“Songbook” is the very first Kenny Barron album with vocals. Can you imagine? There have been individual vocal tracks here and there on past albums, but this is actually the first all-vocal album. And it’s out on double vinyl too! And it features a great crew of contemporary vocalists, both established and at the start…
And so now it’s official: summer is over. Al Sunny, singer/songwriter from Nimes in France, released his third album “Summer End” last month. The album is available on vinyl too on the credible and trustworthy Légère Recordings. One of the most striking features of the album is its immensely lush and sophisticated production work. The…
If “Pretty Close” would have been released towards the end of the 70s, it would have been a hit immediately. Today, the songs and production almost sound like an outré attempt of keeping this golden age in music alive. And it works perfectly. Singer, songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Ethel Lindsey completely wrote, composed, and performed…