The grooving, much faster than usual version of “My Funny Valentine” very well describes singer Chris Bennett‘s artistry: she is not settling for the tried and tested American Songbook and change, like she said, is the only constant in life. After a pretty quick, Las Vegas-style “All Of You” as the opener to her first…
This year’s concert of the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin focuses on George Gershwin. “Summertime – The Fadcinating George Gershwin” is the title of the programme for this upcoming Monday, June 22nd. Since nine years now, the musicians of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper have taken breaks from playing Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, or Puccini to dig…
In 1981, Leon Ware had of course already made a name for himself as one of Motown’s hit songwriters for Michael Jackson (“I Wanna Be Where You Are”), Marvin Gaye (“I Want You”), or post-Motown for Quincy Jones (“If I Ever Lose This Heaven”). He also collaborated with dozens of others and started his own…
I couldn’t wait to hear the wondrous tone of Joe Temperley on the baritone saxophone, that’s why I started to listen to this CD with the second track, “The Steadfast Titan”, on which Joe imbues his playing with a lot of dark colors and a beefy tone. It is a pure joy to listen to…
The third album by tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis explores the hip-hop period of the late 80s/early 90s when bands like A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, or Pete Rock & CL Smooth were big. What he tries here is to emulate the style and technique of the rappers of that time and translate it…
Ever since her Grammy-winning album “I Am Shelby Lynne” (1999), I’ve been following her career right on to her latest “I Can’t Imagine” which came out last month. “But Blue Is How I Paint Myself Today” she sings in the opening track “Paper Van Gogh” and even though most of her songs actually tend to…
It has become a nice tradition for LA-based singer, songwriter, composer, producer Chris Bennett to visit Berlin for a week in the summer months. She’s been doing that since about 20 years now and she will be back this week for four consecutive nights at the A-Trane with two sets each night. Chris, who started…
The man who invented free jazz music with his groundbreaking 1960 album “Free Jazz”, a controversial saxophonist and composer who released many innvovative records over several decades like “This Is Our Music” (1961, notable at least for the brilliant “Beauty Is A Rare Thing”), “Science Fiction” (1971, with poetry recitations by David Henderson and vocals…
The Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, whose solo piano Xmas album “It’s Snowing On My Piano” is the commercially most successful album for the Munich-based ACT Music label, has gathered some of his friends for his latest recording into Bugges Room, his own recording studio in Oslo, and Nublu in New York. The electronic album which…
New York’s Vision Festival for Free Jazz, Dance, Visual Art, and Poetry, celebrates its 20th year from July 5th-12th. In various special concerts, there will be a lot of experimental, free, avantgarde, whatever-you-want-to-call-it Jazz at the Historic Judson Memorial Church at the beautiful Washington Square South. The opening night performances are dedicated to the AACM,…