In August, Gregory Porter‘s podcast started with the first of ten interviews he did with various colleagues from different genres. The first in line was pianist and actor Jeff Goldblum. More artists in this series are Annie Lennox, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gilles Peterson, Don Was, Jamie Cullum, and Kamasi Washington. In other Porter news, the popular…
There is the annual Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival in Samois-sur-Seine in France (June 22nd-26th) and there is the Django Reinhardt Festival in Hildesheim in Germany (July 1st and 2nd). And then there is the Django Reinhardt NY Festival which will celebrate its 17th season this year at Birdland (August 2nd-7th). Among the artists performing at…
We’re happy to annouce that Gina is back from a much needed break and in the meantime, a lot of great new releases flooded our offices. And it is always a big difference reviewing a new album after just one listen or after living with it for a while. And after listening to Gregory Porter‘s new…
It was the perfect weather for the open-air concert of Gregory Porter and the Metropole Orchestra last night during the Citadel Music Festival. After the 60-piece orchestra took their seats, Gregory entered the stage and started out his majestic set with three of his mellower numbers which actually was a very pleasant start for the…
This upcoming week, Berlin has several top live acts as guests. Starting on Monday, Roy Hargrove and his Quintet will grace the stage at A-Trane for three consecutive nights. Roy is bringing his current group with Justin Robinson (sax), Sullivan Fortner (p), Ameen Saleem (b), and Quincy Phillips (dr). Everybody’s darling Gregory Porter returns to…
It was a smooth show last night at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg. The ECHO Jazz Awards 2015 were hosted by Gregory Porter (who also won one trophy and performed “Liquid Spirit” and “Brown Grass”) and Roger Cicero. Entertaining, no awkward lenghts, very good live performances, and short acceptance speeches from all winners…
I’m travelling to Hamburg tomorrow for this year’s ECHO Jazz Award celebrations. Today, awardees Branford Marsalis and Johanna Borchert together with jury member Karsten Jahnke, announced those artists who will give the laudations during the ceremony tomorrow. Among them are Klaus Doldinger, Pepe Lienhard, who served as musical director for Udo Jürgens for many years,…
The 22nd edition of this Festival which once hosted a rare German appearance of Rosemary Clooney, takes place this year from July 3rd to 12th in various locations throughout the city. The Mercedes-Benz Museum has Caro Emerald and Mario Biondi as opening acts on July 4th. Also appearing there will be Marcus Miller and Joshua…
I never quiet understood why Donald Byrd was criticized when he recorded his infamous albums in 1981 and 1982 which were produced by Isaac Hayes. Sell-out was the quote of the day and yet, his 1981 album “Love Byrd” for me belongs to my all-time favorite top ten albums. The album starts with an eight-minute…
It really happens quiet often that prejudices are proven true in the end. When I read the names of the ten artists on the cover of the new Nina Simone tribute album “Round Nina – A Tribute To Nina Simone”, I immediately thought that especially three artists wouldn’t do anything to me or enhance this…