“Break Stuff” is the latest album by pianist Vijay Iyer and his trio, the mesmerizing bassist Stephan Crump and the ebullient drummer Marcus Gilmore. It’s Vijay’s third album on the Munich-based ECM label and was produced by its founder, Manfred Eicher. “The stuff that happens in the breaks”, that’s what the album is about according…
I met Norwegian singer Silje Nergaard earlier today at the Sony HQ in Mitte where all the huge construction work won’t come to an end, so it seems. Silje has just released her new album “Chain Of Days” (her fifteenth!) and was delighted to talk about it. It’s a very intimate and quiet record with…
Multifaceted bassist Marcus Miller writes in the liner notes to his new album “Afrodeezia”, that he “was recently named the spokesperson for UNESCO’s “Slave Route Project”, a project aimed at raising awareness of the story of slavery…” and that “this music is a celebration of people’s ability to endure and overcome oppression, finding hope, meaning…
The Finnish trumpeter, son of famous bassist Pekka Pohjola, has come up with his new album “Bullhorn” on Edition Records. The ten self composed songs on the new album show the very lyrical side of Verneri and the undiluted way of improvising. He has ample help from his trio consisting of Aki Rissanen on piano…
The 28 year old singer from Liverpool entered the X Factor castings in 2010 and ended up second-best. She released her first album “Heaven” in 2011 and the sophomore album “Freedom” two years later. Now she’s back again with her third opus, this time around a tribute to the great Billie Holiday, of which there…
For her third album, UK saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes was able to record three of her compositions together with the BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of André de Ridder. The album is supposed to be about journeys and the adventure begins with “Radiation” which is, in fact, a pretty bright and luminous number…
Born in New York, raised in Croatia, singer Thana Alexa delivers her debut album “Ode To Heroes”. Thana, who took voice lessons at the Rock Academy of Zagreb and later enrolled at the New School in New York, is paying tribute here to her influences, by either covering standards or by writing her own, distinguished…
Jill Scott, Xavier Naidoo, David McAlmont and Max Mutzke on one album? German trumpet player Nils Wülker makes it happen. The 37 year old musician is probably best known for his music for the pretty popular “Space Night” in German TV and back in 2002, he was the very first German jazz artist on the…
Gefion, the 10:33 minute title track of the new ECM album by Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, slowly builds into a monumental, but silent and sometimes sinister piece, with transcendental qualities to it. The track is named after a goddess who is associated with prophecy. The track “Copenhagen”, Bro’s native city, also comes along as a…
Just in time for the first real spring weekend with lots of sun and temperatures in the lower 60s here in Berlin, the folks at Real Side Records, the soul team that was founded in 2002, have come up with the third installment of their wonderful “Soul On The Real Side” Collection, a 20-track album…