Our Record of the Year artist Jarrod Lawson has released another single from his world-class “Be The Change” LP: “Love Isn’t Always Enough”. In my review of the album in late October, I mentioned the fact that “gracefully opulent” ballads like this aren’t made anymore. To further enhance Jarrod’s deeply moving soul balladeering, the new…
After two albums with Durand Jones & The Indications, vocalist and drummer Aaron Frazer has just released his debut album, produced by Dan Auerbach, frontman of The Black Keys. One of the rare treats of this album is that it actually works from start to finish. I mean, you can really listen through both sides…
The guys at UK-based Futuristica Music who gave us the brilliant Nathan Thomas and the equally mesmerizing Georgie Sweet albums last year, also released singer Deborah Thomas‘ third album, called “See In The Dark”. It’s been out since a few months but I wanted to share it here because the double vinyl version is now…
Voice and piano. One of the most intimate situations. Executed to perfection back in 1975 by Irene Kral and Alan Broadbent on “Where Is Love?”, still one of my alltime favorite albums. Janis Mann, the Brooklyn-born, California-based singer, has some of Irene’s features. Her instrument can be equally warm and cool at the same time,…
He has just released our album of the year with “Be The Change“. And this upcoming Monday, Jarrod Lawson will perform a solo set at Classic Pianos in Portland, Oregon, where he worked as a piano tuner before he released his first album and went on his musical journey. He will perform songs from his…
Singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, and former Kiss FM breakfast show producer Nathan Thomas has come up with a refreshingly modern R&B meets neo-soul meets hip-hop beats meets jazz collection of tunes with “Still Water”, opening with the way too short, but pretty sexy “Resilience”, with an urgency in his vocal style that is quiet impressive….
Do you remember the first time you’ve listened to Dave Brubeck‘s groundbreaking “Take Five”? I was eighteen when I bought the “Time Out” LP in Cologne, on a cold February day in 1985. And while I can’t exactly remember where and when I first heard the tune (probably on the radio), what I remember is…
The theme of Saudade is not only reserved for Portuguese or Brazilian folk poetry, but it is also present throughout the latest ECM release of Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni who sings in Albanian, Italian, English, and French on her second release for the Munich-based label (after “Partir” in 2018). She wanted the album to be…
The legendary multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, producer, and composer Bert Kaempfert, writer of such classics such as “Strangers In The Night” or “Spanish Eyes”, is celebrated by Universal Music with “Today & Yesterday – The Bert Kaempfert Anthology”, a double-CD and double-vinyl collection of his original material plus cover versions of his signature songs by artists such…
The 21st annual Soul Togetherness compilation, put together again by Richard Searling and Ralph Tee, is among us. The doube vinyl version is expected to become available as early as next week. And once again, the 15 tracks represent a great overview of the past indie soul year. Starting off with one of the best…