She just finished her European tour. I was lucky to catch up with her in Vienna. I’m still going back to her 1985 LP “Good Morning Kiss”. Her new one, “Soul To Soul”, is her best so far and one of the best recordings of 2014. Happy Birthday Carmen and many more to come!
The last time I saw Vincent Peirani, the brilliant accordionist on stage last Saturday with the legendary drummer Daniel Humair, was about a year or so ago and I didn’t dare ask him to have his hair cut. So it was a nice surprise when he went on stage shaven-headed. But sorry, this is mainly…
His love for the music of Stevie Wonder was on display last night at Loci Loft in Berlin: Frank McComb opened his unscripted, one-man solo show with “Golden Lady”, a song that truly sums up his forte when he easily managed to soar through the verses without ever losing grip, style, and power. His permeating voice…
The first artists for next January’s Winter Jazzfest in New York have been announced and tickets went on sale for one of the most progessive, versatile, and innovative festivals the world over. And more so than ever, there is a heavy dose of socio-politics involved with several of the groups performing. We get Nicole Mitchell’s…
Not a lot of really interesting new records out lately, so I’m filling the gaps in my vinyl collection with the help of the brilliant Discogs online marketplace. I recently found two Lani Hall LPs there after reading James Gavin’s profile of the singer in the December JazzTimes magazine: the 1975 “Hello It’s Me” and…
It was the final night of this year’s highly entertaining XJAZZ Festival – the area in Friedrichshain was run over by people visiting the Village Market, a weekly streetfood festival catering to all kinds of foodies, food junkies, and everyone else in between. But on the night before, artistic director Sebastian Studnitzky played his latest…
The man who got me started into music turns 70 today. Happy birthday Stevie Wonder! Another essential artist for this writer is Roy Ayers. A new track has been found while digging through his older material for the re-release of the 2003 album “Virgin Ubiquity”, which featured unreleased material from his amazingly fruitful period 1976-1981…