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…
Back in November, singer Sachal Vasandani premiered tracks from his new album “Slow Motion Miracles” in Berlin (see report on these pages). And now, his album is finally released. It was produced by Michael Leonhart, who also appears as recording engineer and mixer and is responsible for the overall programming including guitars, brass, keys, synths,…
The Munich-born saxophonist Carolyn Breuer had private lessons with Branford Marsalis and George Coleman in New York and is now releasing her piano-less new album on her own NotNowMom! Records. She starts her album with her verison of Jimi Hendrix‘ “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)” changing the Electric to Acoustic. It features a…
George Colligan, the pianist who has worked with everyone from Phil Woods to Cassandra Wilson, from Nicholas Payton to Vanessa Rubin, or from Gary Bartz to Don Byron, also plays trumpet, organ, and drums. And his latest album “Risky Notion” is where you can hear him solely playing the latter. With his group, the Theoretical…
Eddie Henderson played for some three years in Herbie Hancock‘s Mwandishi group in the early 70s (check out Herbie’s autobiography “Possibilities” written with Lisa Dickey) and then went solo and recorded several brilliant albums on Blue Note and Capitol until 1979. He returned to the recording scene in the early 90s and has released a…
This is how a veritable Pop album should sound like in 2015. The British singer-songwriter Rumer (born Sarah Joyce), who was born in Pakistan, has delivered her third album, produced by Rob Shirakbari, and it is another collection of 11 little stories told in her inimitable vocal style which is stuck in the 60s combined…