Drummer Kendrick Scott, who turned 35 last summer, is probably best known for his work with Terence Blanchard. But he also made a lasting contribution with his own group Oracle which released its debut album almost 10 years ago and which featured Robert Glasper, Aaron Parks, Lionel Loueke, and Gretchen Parlato. He is now back…
Texas-born saxophonist and bassist Wilton Felder formed The Crusaders together with Joe Sample and Stix Hooper. Together, they became one of the most revered jazz fusion groups of the 60s and 70s, with several major international hits, like the immortal “Street Life” (1979). But Wilton was also a sought-after studio musician and played on hundreds…
German jazz and pop singer Roger Cicero, who has worked with the Horst Jankowski Trio in the past, has come up with a new album with his quartet that has been working together for about two years. Maik Schott on piano, Hervé Jeanne on bass, and Matthias Meusel on drums accompany the singer on a…
It really came as a surprise when I found out that singer Karrin Allyson would choose the songs of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein as the theme for her first Motéma Music album. At the end of the day, hasn’t the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook been recorded already with the definitive versions? Wasn’t Karrin more…
The third Soulfood Festival Bremerhaven will bring some of the big stars of the 80s soul scene to town: On November 7th, Bremerhaven’s Stadthalle will host the SOS Band and James “D-Train” Williams as the two headlining acts. The SOS Band had several hits in the 80s like “Take Your Time (Do It Right)”, High…
Bassist Lorin Cohen, born and raised in Chicago and currently living in New York, has toured extensively with the great Monty Alexander. And so it is only natural that the Caribbean also finds its way onto this diverse and exciting album. Lorin wanted to use mallet instruments for his eight compositions and he got an…
Husband and wife duo, singer Caecilie Norby and bassist Lars Danielsson, have finally recorded a record with just the two of them. A couple of tracks have been in Caecilie’s live repertoire for several years (“Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell, “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, and “Wholly Earth” by Abbey Lincoln) and have now found…
This is Ola Onabulé‘s eighth studio album. He recently had tremendous success in the UK with a remix of “Soul Town” from his 2004 album “In Emergency, Break Silence”. The British Nigerian soul singer and songwriter who sounds like a mix between Frankie Beverly and Michael McDonald, recorded his latest 12-song set in London with…
Swedish pianist Martin Tingvall traveled to Iceland to collect ideas and get inspiration for his new album “Distance”. He wanted to find a distance from the speedy everyday life and “a little break, some distance, calm and time for new perspectives”. And so his 12 compositions are, again, a reminder of the great Chick Corea‘s…
Berlin’s newest jazz club, the Zig Zag Club in Schöneberg, opened in 2012 and had a major renovation last year. The club draws people from all age groups and all kinds of backgrounds and features the vast Berlin jazz landscape with all of its forms: Be Bop, Free, Latin, African, Balkan, Soul, Funk, Blues etc…