We went on a three-hour walk with Gina last night through the illuminated city. It was the final night of Berlin’s now very popular annual Festival of Lights. Gina was one of the stars with her red, twinkling collar and the eerie shining eyes……
It’s Carmen’s 65th birthday today. Happy birthday! I still remember her wonderful concert in Vienna a few years ago where she appeared with Patrice Rushen. I was lucky enough to meet her for a lengthy interview the day after the show. Carmen has released her latest work “Modern Ancestors” last week and it starts out…
It’s her eleventh album to date and her first since “Homefree” came out back in 2010. Nnenna Freelon sounds as fresh and graceful, jazzy and soulful as ever and in most cases on her beautiful new disc, even better than ever before. Harking back to her “Listen” (1994), “Shaking Free” (1996) or “Soulcall” (2000) days…
I still remember seeing singer/songwriter Ledisi perform for the first time. It was way back in 2000 in San Francisco at a tiny little bar/café. At the time, she had just released her debut album “Soulsinger”, a set of brilliantly executed neo soul songs which still resonates up to this day. On April 25th, Ledisi…
Happy 80th birthday to the one and only Smokey Robinson. We’re digging deep into our vinyl collection and here are our current Smokey favorites, album by album: “Smokey” (1973): “Holly”“Pure Smokey” (1974): “I Am I Am”“A Quiet Storm” (1975): “Quiet Storm”“Smokey’s Family Robinson” (1976): “Castles Made Of Sand”“Deep In My Soul” (1977): “It’s Been A…
German-born director Bastian Günther has come up with a great story for “One Of These Days”, running in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale. Staged in a town in Texas, there is a competition where people have to place one hand on a pickup truck and are not allowed to take it away. The…
His sound on the sax always seemed to echo his wit and joy that he was able to spread around in person. Legendary saxophonist, bandleader, composer Jimmy Heath died at his home in Georgia on Sunday. He was 93. Jimmy’s sound on the sax was influenced by Charlie Parker and he soon became “Little Bird”…