New Orleans-native Herlin Riley has played with Ahmad Jamal in the 80s and on a lot of recordings by Wynton Marsalis. The drummer is also a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and played on albums by George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., Cassandra Wilson, Marcus Roberts, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and a lot of…
In 2007, trumpeter Paolo Fresu (Italy), accordionist Richard Galliano (France), and pianist Jan Lundgren (Sweden) released their first “Mare Nostrum” album to great critical acclaim. Over 150 concerts and nine years later, the three musicians have finally come up with the second installment of their working group: “Mare Nostrum II” will be released this Friday. The…
It is a sinister black & white movie shot in 70s Czech Republic. Olga is bullied by everybody: her mother who won’t tell her who her father is, the other children, the inmates of a boarding school. She thinks that everyone is picking on her without any real reason. So she flees into her own world,…
There are many little highlights in the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!”, which opened the 66th Berlinale last night (out of competition). My favorite is a tiny little scene where Frances McDormand plays a film cutter and almost strangles herself. Josh Brolin plays a movie executive who has to come to grips with various problems, many of them…
South African musician and producer Greg Dean, who lives in New York, had already released the first single from his album last October; the soulful title track features the brilliant Jarrod Lawson and Chantae Cann on vocals. So here is the full-length album, an 11-tracker brimming with soul, fancy production, and superb guest vocalists. It…
UK-based trio GoGo Penguin had a surprisingly fast start after their last album “V2.0”, touring the world’s clubs and festivals, fully using the momentum and finally landing a three-album deal with Blue Note Records. This is the first of those three albums and the jazz-meets-electronica moniker is only partly true I think. And the hype…
This is Brazilian singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Ed Motta‘s 12th album, produced by Kamau Kenyatta (producer for Gregory Porter and an upcoming project by Detroit singer Kathy Kosins) in Los Angeles. The similarity to both Donald Fagen and Frank McComb, especially in the opening midtempo, swaying track “Captain’s Refusal”, is enormous. Ed and Kamau came…
One of my favorite tracks of the past year is “The Greatest” by female trio KING. Finally, here they are with their debut album “We Are KING”. If you’re a child of the 80s, and cherish the soul and r&b sounds of the 1980-1985 era, this is for you. The three ladies, twins Amber and…
New York-based vocalist Mary Foster Conklin has just released her fourth CD called “Photographs” (her first since 2006), named after a Fran Landesman song. There is a total of five Landesman songs on the album. The songwriter is probably best-known for her “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most”, but Mary also chose to…
Malian singer Rokia Traoré opens the latest album by trumpet virtuoso Erik Truffaz. They both introduce “Doni Doni” with a folklore miniature called “Comptine” before the full quartet sets in with thick electric keyboards on “Kudu”, a track that is both Weather Report and modern jazz dance groove, the type of which he more or…